Though briefly mentioned in Egerton’s “A Lost Masterpiece”, the London Bridge seems to serve as a passing point for the narrator who leaves the countryside to journey to the city for “the desire to mix with the crowd, to lay my ear once more to the heart of the world and listen to its life-throbs, had grown too strong for me” (Egerton). It is the threshold that serves as the introduction into the city of London, the “heart of the world”.

In the piece, the narrator mentions boarding a river steamer in Chelsea that was bound for the London Bridge. Using this image found on the Victorian Web, we can get an idea of how the bridge appeared in the Victorian era:

Besides getting an idea of how the bridge appeared back then, we also know that if the steamer was headed for the bridge, it would have to cross under. Alongside the river, we see countless numbers of industrialized buildings and wharf that populated alongside the river.

Also interestingly enough there had been a previous London Bridge that had been dismantled in 1832. The newer bridge had been designed by John Rennie and the building began in 1825 and was finished in 1831. On the google map of Victorian London, you can also see an old outline of the old London Bridge compared to the newer one. I thought it was an interesting find to include, as that’s not quite common knowledge that there were two London Bridges, though I doubt Egerton’s piece is referring to the old one.

Here’s also another map of the London Bridge provided by the Charles Booth Online Archive to give a better layout of the bridge:

According to the British History Online, the London Bridge also has quite a history. Along with serving as a battlefield and a place of worship, it was a place of resort for traders and a show-place for traitors. One passage, that I found was interesting, explained the passage on the bridge: “and the passage between its arches was one of the exploits of venturous youth, down to the very time of its removal” (Thornbury). Which can go back to the text as the narrator passed on from the simple and green countryside to the industrialized city. “The river was wrapped in a delicate grey haze with a golden sub-tone, like a beautiful bright thought struggling for utterance through a mist of obscure words. It glowed through the turbid waters under the arches, so that I feared to see a face or a hand wave through its dull amber—for I always think of drowned creatures washing wearily in its murky depths—it lit up the great
warehouses, and warmed the brickwork of the monster chimneys in the background. No detail escaped my outer eyes not the hideous green of the velveteen in the sleeves of the woman on my left, nor the supercilious giggle of the young ladies on my right, who made audible remarks about my personal appearance” (Egerton).

As mentioned, the bridge had also been the scene of many fights. During Queen Mary’s reign, fighting commenced on the bridge in 1554 was one such example. And during Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the bridge had been restored  until the eighteenth century where it became ruinous.

And finally, one last remaining fact about the location is in reference to the old nursery rhyme “London Bridge is Falling Down”. On the British History Online site, it is mentioned that “if Old London Bridge had a fault, it was, perhaps, its habit of occasionally partly falling down” (Thornbury). Perhaps then this is where the nursery rhyme had its root come from? Thought it was an interesting fact to include in as well.

 

Works Cited:

Egerton, George [Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright]. “A Lost Masterpiece.” The Yellow Book 1 (Apr. 1894): 189-96. The Yellow Nineties Online. Ed. Dennis Denisoff and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra. Ryerson University, 2010. Web. [Date of access]. http://www.1890s.ca/HTML.aspx?s=YBV1_egerton_masterpiece.html“London Bridge.” Charles Booth Online Archive. London School of Economics & Political Science, n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2015. Thornbury, Walter, ‘London Bridge’, in Old and New London: Volume 2 (London, 1878), pp. 9-17 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol2/pp9-17 [accessed 9 September 2015].