Richmond Bridge, London
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Richmond Bridge is an 18th-century
stone arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side, and partiall ...
that crosses the
River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
at
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...
, connecting the two halves of the present-day
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in south-west Greater London, London, England, forms part of Outer London and is the only London boroughs, London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller ...
. It was designed by James Paine and Kenton Couse. The bridge, which is
Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
, was built between 1774 and 1777, as a replacement for a
ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...
crossing which connected Richmond town centre on the east bank with its neighbouring district of East
Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...
to the west. Its construction was privately funded by a
tontine A tontine () is an investment linked to a living person which provides an income for as long as that person is alive. Such schemes originated as plans for governments to raise capital in the 17th century and became relatively widespread in the 18 ...
scheme, for which tolls were charged until 1859. Because the river
meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the Channel (geography), channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erosion, erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank (cut bank, cut bank or river cl ...
s from its general west to east direction, flowing from southeast to northwest in this part of London, what would otherwise be known as the north and south banks are often referred to as the "Middlesex" (Twickenham) and "Surrey" (Richmond) banks respectively, named after the historic counties to which each side once belonged. The bridge was widened and slightly flattened in 1937–40, but otherwise still conforms to its original design. The eighth Thames bridge to be built in what is now
Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...
, it is today the oldest surviving Thames bridge in London.


Background

The small town of Sheen on the
Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...
bank of the
Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...
, west of the
City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
or by river, had been the site of a royal
palace A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...
since 1299. After it was destroyed by fire in 1497, Henry VII built a new palace on the site, naming it
Richmond Palace Richmond Palace was a Tudor royal residence on the River Thames in England which stood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Situated in what was then rural Surrey, it lay upstream and on the opposite bank from the Palace of Westminste ...
after his historic title of
Earl of Richmond The now-extinct title of Earl of Richmond was created many times in the Peerage of Peerage of England, England. The earldom of Richmond, North Yorkshire, Richmond was initially held by various Breton people, Breton nobles; sometimes the holde ...
, and the central part of Sheen became known as
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...
. Although a
ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...
had almost certainly existed at the site of the present-day bridge since Norman times, the earliest known crossing of the river at Richmond dates from 1439. The service was owned by the Crown, and operated by two boats, a small
skiff A skiff is any of a variety of essentially unrelated styles of small boats, usually propelled by sails or oars. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft used for work, leisure, as a utility craft, and for fishing, and have a one-pers ...
for the transport of passengers and a larger boat for horses and small
cart A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...
s; the Twickenham Ferry, slightly upstream, was also in service from at least 1652. However, due to the steepness of the hill leading to the shore-line on the Surrey side neither ferry service was able to transport
carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...
s or heavily laden carts, forcing them to make a very lengthy detour via Kingston Bridge. In the 18th century Richmond and neighbouring
Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...
on the opposite bank of the Thames, both of which were distant from London but enjoyed efficient transport links to the city via the river, became extremely fashionable, and their populations began to grow rapidly. As the ferry was unable to handle large loads and was often cancelled due to weather conditions, the river crossing became a major traffic
bottleneck Bottleneck may refer to: * the narrowed portion (neck) of a bottle Science and technology * Bottleneck (engineering), where the performance of an entire system is limited by a single component * Bottleneck (network), in a communication network * ...
. Local resident William Windham had been sub-tutor to
Prince William, Duke of Cumberland Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (15 April 1721 Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">N.S./nowiki> – 31 October 1765) was the third and youngest son of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ire ...
, and was the former husband of Mary, Lady Deloraine, mistress to George II. As a reward for his services, George II leased Windham the right to operate the ferry until 1798. Windham sub-let the right to operate the ferry to local resident Henry Holland. With the ferry unable to serve the demands of the area, in 1772 Windham sought parliamentary approval to replace the ferry with a wooden bridge, to be paid for by tolls.


Design

The plans for a wooden bridge proved unpopular, and the ( 13 Geo. 3. c. 83) was passed by Parliament, selecting 90 commissioners, including landscape architect Lancelot "Capability" Brown, historian and politician
Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...
and playwright and actor
David Garrick David Garrick (19 February 1716 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, Actor-manager, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil a ...
, to oversee the construction of a stone bridge on the site of the ferry. The act stipulated that no tax of any sort could be used to finance the bridge, and fixed a scale of tolls, ranging from ½ d for a pedestrian to 2 s 6d for a coach drawn by six horses (about 50p and £ respectively in ). Henry Holland was granted £5,350 (about £ in ) compensation for the loss of the ferry service. The commission appointed James Paine and Kenton Couse to design and build the new bridge. The act specified that the bridge was to be built on the site of the existing ferry "or as much lower down the river as the Commission can settle". Local residents lobbied for it to be built at Water Lane, a short distance downstream from the ferry site. The approach to the river was relatively flat, avoiding the steep slope to the existing ferry pier on the Surrey bank. However, the Dowager Duchess of Newcastle refused to allow the approach road on the Middlesex bank to pass through her land at Twickenham Park, and the commission was forced to build on the site of the ferry, despite a steep 1 in 16 (6.25%) incline. The bridge was designed as a
stone arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side, and partiall ...
of in length and in width, supported by five elliptical arches of varying heights. The tall wide central span was designed to allow shipping to pass, giving Richmond Bridge a distinctive humpbacked appearance. It was built in
Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...
, and ran between Ferry Hill (Bridge Street today) on the Surrey side and Richmond Road on the Middlesex side; sharp curves in the approach roads on the Middlesex side (still in existence today) were needed to avoid the Dowager Duchess of Newcastle's land at Twickenham Park.
Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
toll house A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road, canal, or toll bridge. History Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and ...
s were built in alcoves at each end.


Construction

The building was put out to tender, and on 16 May 1774 Thomas Kerr was awarded the contract to build the bridge for the sum of £10,900 (about £ in ). With additional costs, such as compensating landowners and building new approach roads, total costs came to approximately £26,000 (about £ in ). Most of the money needed was raised from the sale of shares at £100 each (approximately £ in ) in two
tontine A tontine () is an investment linked to a living person which provides an income for as long as that person is alive. Such schemes originated as plans for governments to raise capital in the 17th century and became relatively widespread in the 18 ...
schemes, the first for £20,000 and the second for £5,000. The first was appropriately called the Richmond-Bridge Tontine, but when it became clear that the initial £20,000 would not be sufficient to complete construction a second tontine was set up. Each investor was guaranteed a return of 4% per annum, so £1,000 per annum from the income raised from tolls was divided amongst the investors in the two tontines. On the death of a shareholder their share of the dividend was divided among the surviving shareholders. To avoid fraud, each investor was obliged to sign an affidavit that they were alive before receiving their dividend.The tontine shares were transferable, although the payment of the dividend relied on the survival of the original investor. Any revenue over the £1,000 per annum required to pay the investors was held in a general fund for the maintenance of the bridge. Construction began on 23 August 1774. The
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...
was invited to lay the first stone but declined, and so the stone was laid by commission member Henry Hobart. The bridge opened to pedestrians in September 1776 and to other traffic on 12 January 1777, at which time the ferry service was closed, although work on the bridge was not completed until December 1777. A large
milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...
was placed at the Richmond end, giving the distances to other bridges and to local towns.


Operation

There was no formal opening ceremony, and little initial recorded public reaction. However, the bridge soon became much admired for its design; an article in ''
The London Magazine ''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and poetry. A number of Nobel Laureates, including Annie Ernaux, Albert Camus, Doris Les ...
'' in 1779 said that the bridge was "a simple, yet elegant structure, and, from its happy situation, is ... one of the most beautiful ornaments of the river ... from whatever point of view the bridge is beheld, it presents the spectator with one of the richest landscapes nature and art ever produced by their joint efforts, and connoisseurs in painting will instantly be reminded of some of the best performances of
Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in I ...
e". James Paine proudly illustrated it among the designs in the second volume of his ''Plans, Elevations, and Sections of Noblemen and Gentlemen's Houses'', 1783. Richmond Bridge was the subject of paintings by many leading artists, including
Thomas Rowlandson Thomas Rowlandson (; 13 July 1757 – 21 April 1827) was an English artist and caricaturist of the Georgian Era, noted for his political satire and social observation. A prolific artist and printmaker, Rowlandson produced both individual soc ...
,
John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...
and local resident
J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbu ...
. Severe penalties were imposed for vandalising the bridge. The Richmond Bridge Act 1773 specified that the punishment for "willful or malicious damage" to the bridge should be "transportation to one of His Majesty's Colonies in America for the space of seven years". A warning against damage can still be seen on the milestone at the Surrey end of the bridge. Richmond Bridge was a commercial success, generating £1,300 per annum in tolls (about £ in ) in 1810. By 1822, the company had accumulated a sufficient surplus that all vehicle tolls were reduced to one penny. On 10 March 1859 the last subscriber to the main tontine died, having for over five years received the full £800 per annum set aside for subscribers to the first tontine, and with the death of its last member the scheme expired.The smaller second tontine continued until the death of its last shareholder in 1865, paying a total of £200 per annum; for the last six years this was paid from the accumulated toll revenues of previous years. On 25 March 1859 Richmond Bridge became toll-free. A large procession made its way to the bridge, where a team of labourers symbolically removed toll gates from their hinges. The toll houses were demolished, replaced by seating in 1868; investment income from the revenue accumulated during the 83 years the tolls had been charged was sufficient to pay for the bridge's maintenance. In 1846 the first railway line reached Richmond. Richmond gasworks opened in 1848, and Richmond began to develop into a significant town. § XVI. The
District Railway The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London, England, from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an " inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the ...
(later the
District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road tube station (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines), Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One br ...
) reached Richmond in 1877, connecting it to the
London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...
. Commuting to central London became feasible and affordable, leading to further population growth in the previously relatively isolated Richmond and Twickenham areas.


20th-century remodelling

By the early 20th century the bridge was proving inadequate for the increasing traffic, particularly with the introduction of motorised transport, and a speed limit was enforced. With the remaining investment income from tolls insufficient to pay for major reconstruction, on 31 March 1931 the bridge was taken into the joint public ownership of Surrey and Middlesex councils, and proposals were made to widen it. The plans were strongly opposed on aesthetic grounds, and the decision was taken to build instead a new bridge a short distance downstream to relieve traffic pressure. The new Twickenham Bridge opened in 1933, but Richmond Bridge was still unable to handle the volume of traffic, so in 1933 Sir Harley Dalrymple-Hay proposed possible methods for widening the bridge without significantly affecting its appearance. The cheapest of Dalrymple-Hay's proposals, to transfer the footpaths onto stone
corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...
s projecting from the sides of the bridge thus freeing the entire width for vehicle traffic, was rejected on aesthetic grounds, and a proposal to widen the bridge on both sides was rejected as impractical. A proposal to widen the bridge on the upstream side was settled on as causing the least disruption to nearby buildings, and in 1934 it was decided to widen the bridge by , at a cost of £73,000 (about £ in ). The
Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company was a British bridge works and structural steel contractor based in Darlington. It built various structures including the Victoria Falls Bridge, Tees Transporter Bridge, Forth Road Bridge, Forth Road, Hum ...
of
Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...
was appointed to carry out the rebuilding. In 1937 each stone on the upstream side was removed and numbered and the bridge widened; the stone facing of the upstream side was then reassembled and the bridge reopened to traffic in 1940. Throughout the redevelopment, a single lane of traffic was kept open at all times. It was found that the 18th-century foundations, consisting of wooden platforms sunk into the river bed, had largely rotted away, and they were reinforced with steel pilings and concrete foundations. During the widening works the opportunity was also taken to lower slightly the roadbed at the centre of the bridge and raise the access ramps, reducing the humpbacked nature of the bridge's central section.


Legacy

James Paine went on to design three other Thames bridges after Richmond, at
Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, southwest of central London. It grew up around Chertsey Abbey, founded in AD 666 by Earconwald, St Erkenwald, and gained a municipal charter, market charter from Henry I of Engla ...
(1783),
Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...
(1783), and Walton (1788). Paine and Couse renewed their working relationship on the design of Chertsey Bridge, the only one of the three still in existence. Paine became High Sheriff of Surrey in 1783. In 1962, Richmond Council announced the replacement of the gaslamps on the bridge with electric lighting. The Richmond Society, a local pressure group, protested at the change to the character of the bridge, and succeeded in forcing the council to retain the Victorian gas lamp-posts, converted to electric light, which remain in place today. In the history of Richmond Bridge there have only been two reported serious collisions between boats and the bridge. On 20 March 1964, three boats tied together at Eel Pie Island, upstream, broke from their moorings in a storm and were swept downstream, colliding with the bridge. Although no serious damage was caused to the bridge, the ''Princess Beatrice'', an 1896 steamer once used by
Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen com ...
, was damaged beyond repair. On 30 January 1987, the ''Brave Goose'', the £3,500,000
yacht A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...
of National Car Parks founder Sir Donald Gosling, became wedged under the central arch of the bridge, eventually being freed at low tide the next day. The eighth Thames bridge to be built in what is now
Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...
, Richmond Bridge is currently the oldest surviving bridge over the Thames in Greater London,
London Bridge The name "London Bridge" refers to several historic crossings that have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark in central London since Roman Britain, Roman times. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 197 ...
(''circa'' 55 AD), Kingston Bridge (date of construction unrecorded, but renovated in 1193 so dating from the mid-12th century at the latest), Putney Bridge (1729),
Westminster Bridge Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge crossing over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side. The bridge is painted predominantly green, the same colour as the leather seats ...
(1739), Hampton Court Bridge (1752),
Kew Bridge Kew Bridge is a wide-span bridge over the Tideway (upper estuary of the Thames) linking the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow. The present bridge, which was opened in 1903 as King Edward VII Bridge by King Edward VII and Q ...
(1759),
Blackfriars Bridge Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road. The north end is in the City of London near the Inns of Court and Temple C ...
(1769) and
Battersea Bridge Battersea Bridge is a five-span arch bridge with cast-iron girders and granite piers crossing the River Thames in London, England. It is situated on a sharp bend in the river, and links Battersea south of the river with Chelsea to the north. ...
(1771) predate Richmond Bridge, but have all been demolished and replaced since the construction of Richmond Bridge.
and the oldest Thames bridge between the sea and Abingdon Bridge in Oxfordshire. Richmond Bridge was
Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
in 1952 and it is the only Georgian bridge over the Thames in London. Its bicentenary was celebrated on 7 May 1977; the commemoration was held four months after the actual anniversary of 12 January, to avoid poor weather conditions. The tradition of boat hire, repairs and boatbuilding continues at the bridge and tunnels at Richmond Bridge Boathouses under boatbuilder Mark Edwards, awarded his MBE in 2013 for "services to boatbuilding" including construction of the royal barge Gloriana. Just to the south of the bridge, in a park at the Richmond end, is a bust of the first president of
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
,
Bernardo O'Higgins Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme (; 20 August 1778 – 24 October 1842) was a Chilean independence leader who freed Chile from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence. He was a wealthy landowner of Basque people, Basque-Spanish people, Spani ...
, who studied in Richmond from 1795 until 1798. In 1998, 200 years after he left Richmond, the bust, whose sculptor is unknown, was unveiled. The patch of ground which the statue overlooks is called "O'Higgins Square". The Mayor of Richmond lays a wreath at the bust every year in the presence of staff from the Chilean Embassy in London.


See also

*
List of crossings of the River Thames The River Thames is the second-longest river in the United Kingdom, passes through the capital city, and has many crossings. Counting every channel – such as by its islands linked to only one bank – it is crossed by over 300 brid ...
*
List of bridges in London A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...


Notes


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * {{Authority control 1774 establishments in England Arch bridges in the United Kingdom Bridges across the River Thames Bridges in London Bridges completed in 1777 Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Former toll bridges in England Grade I listed bridges in London Grade I listed buildings in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Richmond, London Stone bridges in the United Kingdom Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Transport in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames