London Bridge

London Bridge stands where the Thames has been crossed since Roman times, linking the City of London with Southwark. The present structure, opened in 1973, is a concrete and steel box girder bridge that replaced a 19th-century stone-arched bridge. Before that stood a medieval stone bridge built in the 12th century, which itself replaced earlier timber crossings. The medieval bridge carried homes and shops along its length and was guarded at its southern end by a large stone gateway. Roman engineers first built a timber bridge around AD 50 to link their new town of Londinium with the southern settlements. The bridge has always marked a key crossing point on the Thames. Until Putney Bridge opened in 1729, it was the only road crossing downstream of Kingston. The approaches to the medieval bridge were marked by St Magnus-the-Martyr church on the north bank and Southwark Cathedral on the south. The bridge appears in art, literature and songs, including the nursery rhyme ‘London Bridge Is Falling Down’ and T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land. It also delineates a business district along the southern bank between itself and Tower Bridge. Visitors today see a broad concrete bridge carrying the A3 road across the river. The modern bridge stands 30 metres upstream from earlier alignments at the western end of the Pool of London. The northern approach is still marked by St Magnus-the-Martyr, while Southwark Cathedral remains on the southern shore. The crossing offers views of the river and the historic waterfront on both sides. The area south of the bridge, between it and Tower Bridge, has been developed as a business improvement district.