Cannon Street Railway Bridge

Cannon Street Railway Bridge carries trains into Cannon Street station across the Thames in the City of London. The bridge stands just east of London Bridge and links the station’s eight platforms to the South Eastern Main Line. Its brick viaduct rises over Upper Thames Street, and below lie remains of Roman buildings protected as a scheduled monument. The bridge was built between 1863 and 1866 by Lucas Brothers for the South Eastern Railway, replacing an earlier proposal for a rival line. Two tall towers designed by Sir John Hawkshaw and John Wolfe-Barry once framed the river end of the station. Pedestrians paid a halfpenny toll to cross between 1872 and 1877 before the bridge was widened to twelve tracks in the late 1880s. The bridge’s importance grew when the South Eastern Railway merged with the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1899. Continental boat trains once stopped here before the First World War, and the station handled commuters from Kent and south-east London. During the war it became a goods depot, and in 1926 it closed for a month of track relaying and new colour-light signalling. The bridge’s six extra girders were added in 1913 to strengthen its structure. A monorail plan to link London Bridge and Cannon Street was abandoned, leaving the existing bridge as the only route. Visitors crossing the bridge see the City’s skyline framed by the surviving brick arches and iron girders. The river below carries sightseeing boats and working barges while the bridge itself carries fast commuter trains. From the pavement on Upper Thames Street the scale of the brick viaduct is clear, and the Roman remains beneath hint at older layers of the site. The two Wren-style towers no longer stand, but their former positions mark the bridge’s original river entrance. The bridge remains a quiet witness to the daily flow of people and goods between the City and the wider network.