Southwark Bridge
is mentioned in the first paragraph of the first chapter of "Our Mutual Friend".
The text of the book is to be found at the Gutenberg
website:
"
BOOK THE FIRST — THE CUP AND THE LIP
Chapter 1
ON THE LOOK OUT
In these times
of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat
of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the
Thames, between Southwark bridge which is of iron, and London Bridge which is of
stone, as an autumn evening was closing in.
The figures in
this boat were those of a strong man with ragged grizzled hair and a sun-browned
face, and a dark girl of nineteen or twenty, sufficiently like him to be
recognizable as his daughter. The girl rowed, pulling a pair of sculls very
easily; the man, with the rudder-lines slack in his hands, and his hands loose
in his waistband, kept an eager look out. He had no net, hook, or line, and he
could not be a fisherman; his boat had no cushion for a sitter, no paint, no
inscription, no appliance beyond a rusty boathook and a coil of rope, and he
could not be a waterman; his boat was too crazy and too small to take in cargo
for delivery, and he could not be a lighterman or river-carrier; there was no
clue to what he looked for, but he looked for something, with a most intent and
searching gaze. The tide, which had turned an hour before, was running down, and
his eyes watched every little race and eddy in its broad sweep, as the boat made
slight head-way against it, or drove stern foremost before it, according as he
directed his daughter by a movement of his head. She watched his face as
earnestly as he watched the river. But, in the intensity of her look there was a
touch of dread or horror."
It
is mentioned again in the same chapter when Dickens writes:
"The red light
was gone, the shudder was gone, and his gaze, which had come back to the boat
for a moment, travelled away again. Wheresoever the strong tide met with an
impediment, his gaze paused for an instant. At every mooring-chain and rope, at
every stationery boat or barge that split the current into a broad-arrowhead, at
the offsets from the piers of Southwark Bridge, at the paddles of the river
steamboats as they beat the filthy water, at the floating logs of timber lashed
together lying off certain wharves, his shining eyes darted a hungry look. After
a darkening hour or so, suddenly the rudder-lines tightened in his hold, and he
steered hard towards the Surrey shore."
A date plaque, close to the centre of
the bridge on the west side of the road, advises:
Southwark Bridge
Re-built by the Bridge House Estates
Committee
of the Corporation of London
1918 - 1921
Opened for traffic by their
Majesties
King George V. and Queen Mary
6th June 1921
Sir Ernest Lamb
C.M.G., J.P., Chairman
Basil Mott C.B., Engineer
Sir Ernest George R.A.,
Architect
The bridge is Grade II listed and the entry at the English
Heritage website tells us:
"Road and foot bridge, 1913-21, designed by Basil Mott
of Mott, Hay and Anderson; piers and turrets to the designs of Sir Ernest George
RA. Five steel arches supported by granite piers which are rusticated. Two spans
of 123 ft and 131 ft on each side; central span of 141. ft. The spacing was
determined so that the piers would align with those of Blackfriars Road Bridge
(q.v.) and Rennie's London Bridge. The piers, whose classical design shows a
typical Edwardian exuberance, were completed by the outbreak of war; work
continued, with increasing delays due to material shortages, until 1917. After
the war mounting traffic congestion in the City made its completion a high
priority , and Southwark Bridge was one of the first major public works projects
to be resumed after the Annistice. It was opened by King George V in 1921. The
total cost was borne by the Bridge House Estates Committee."
The Open
Buildings website also tells us:
"Southwark Bridge is an arch bridge for traffic linking
Southwark and the City across the River Thames, in London, England. It was
designed by Ernest George and Basil Mott. It was built by Sir William Arrol
& Co. and opened in 1921. The bridge is owned and maintained by City Bridge
Trust, a charitable trust overseen by the City of London
Corporation.
History
A previous bridge on the site, designed by
John Rennie, opened in 1819, and was originally known as Queen Street Bridge, as
shown on the 1818 John Snow Map of London. The bridge consisted of three large
cast-iron spans supported by granite piers. It was known as the "Iron Bridge" in
comparison to London Bridge, the "Stone Bridge". The bridge was notable for
having the longest cast iron span, 240 feet (73 m), ever made. Halfway along the
bridge on the Western side is a plaque which is inscribed: Re-built by the
Bridge House Estates Committee of the Corporation of London 1913-1921 Opened for
traffic by their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary 6th June 1921 Sir Ernest
Lamb CMG, JP Chairman Basil Mott, CB Engineer Sir Ernest George RA Architect The
bridge provides access to Upper Thames Street on the north bank and, due to the
ring of steel, there is no further access to the City and the north. This has
led to a reputation of it being the least used bridge in central London and it
is sometimes known as the "car park bridge" as coach drivers use it to park
their vehicles. The current bridge was given Grade II listed structure status in
1995.
Nearby
The south end is near the Tate Modern, the
Clink Prison Museum, the Globe Theatre, and the Financial Times building. The
north end is near Cannon Street station. Below the bridge on the south side are
some old steps, which were once used by Thames watermen as a place to moor their
boats and wait for customers. Southwark Bridge was built into the steps. Below
the bridge on the south side is a pedestrian tunnel, containing a frieze
depicting the Thames frost fairs. The next bridge upstream is the London
Millennium Bridge and the next downstream is Cannon Street Railway
Bridge.
Popular culture
Southwark Bridge is frequently
referenced by Charles Dickens, for example in Little Dorrit and Our Mutual
Friend , and there was a recreation of the old bridge made for the 2008 Little
Dorrit (TV serial) . The cream painted houses on the south side of the bridge,
just after the FT building, were used for the exterior shots of the shared house
in This Life."