Waterloo Bridge

Waterloo Bridge carries road and foot traffic across the Thames between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. It stands at a sharp bend in the river, so from its centre the eye travels west to Westminster, the South Bank and the London Eye, and east to the City of London and Canary Wharf. The bridge was given Grade II* listed protection in 1981. Its first granite structure was designed by John Rennie and opened in 1817 as a toll bridge. Rennie’s nine-arch bridge was 748 metres long and 13 metres wide, with double Doric columns between each span. The Italian sculptor Canova called it ‘the noblest bridge in the world’, and Michael Faraday used the bridge in 1832 to test magnetohydrodynamics. By the 1920s the piers were settling, and after temporary works the bridge reopened to pedestrians in 1924. The present bridge, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, was built between 1937 and 1945. Its five ‘arches’ are actually box-girder beams clad in Portland stone, with a central suspended deck. During the Second World War women formed most of the construction workforce, earning it the nickname ‘The Ladies’ Bridge’. Granite from the old bridge was sent to Canberra, Wellington and Umtali, and timbers were reused in the library at Anglesey Abbey.