Battersea Bridge

Battersea Bridge carries the road across the Thames between Chelsea on the north bank and Battersea on the south. It stands where the river bends sharply east, replacing a ferry that had run since at least the mid-1500s. The first bridge, a wooden toll structure designed by Henry Holland, opened to pedestrians in 1771 and to traffic the following year. Its nineteen narrow spans made navigation hazardous and collisions frequent, yet it survived until 1885. The present five-span bridge, designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette and built by John Mowlem & Co, is the narrowest surviving Thames road bridge in London. The location on a tight river bend has always made the crossing dangerous for shipping. The wooden bridge was painted by Turner, Cotman and Whistler, whose Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge records its slender silhouette at dusk. After decades of complaints and accidents, the bridge was bought by the public in 1879 and replaced six years later. Bazalgette’s design uses stone arches to carry a narrow roadway that remains one of London’s least busy Thames crossings. Visitors walk the bridge’s broad pavement with views upriver towards Chelsea’s historic embankment and downriver towards the power station. The sharp bend frames changing light on the water, while Chelsea’s 18th-century houses line the north bank. South of the river the low Battersea shore shows traces of its former marshes and lavender fields. The bridge’s iron railings, installed in the 1820s, carry the original gas lamps, adding a quiet evening glow.