CHAPTER 24 - LAMBETH BRIDGE AND ITS PREDECESSOR THE HORSEFERRY
Some authorities hold that there was an ancient British ford, subsequently used by the Romans near the site of Lambeth Palace or a little
down the river at Stangate. (ref. 228) Whether this was so or not, it is certain that
from the time of the establishment of a town house of the Archbishops of
Canterbury at Lambeth there must have been a constant plying across the
river between Lambeth House (or Palace) and the King's palace at Westminster, especially as many of the mediaeval Archbishops held high offices
of state. In 1367, for example, a sum of £16 was paid to the clerks of chancery
for the barge “for passage to and fro across the Thames to the manor of
Lambheth of Simon archbishop of Canterbury the chancellor where the inn
of chancery is now held, and for wages of the keepers of the said barge.” (ref. 16)
When the Horseferry was first established at Lambeth is not known.
The earliest specific reference to it which has been found is in the year 1513, (ref. 229)
when the Archbishop granted the ferry over the Thames from Lambeth to
Westminster to Humphrey Trevilyan at the rent of 16d. a year. A provision
was included in the grant that the Archbishop and his servants and his goods
and chattels should be carried free. Similar grants of a later date are to be
found among the records at Lambeth Palace. In Thomas Cromwell's
accounts (ref. 23) for the year 1538 is an entry for the “ferryage” of his horses at
Lambeth and there is also extant a bill dated 1546 from Edmonde Lewes,
“Feryman” for ferrying the king's horses “over the water at Lambyth
ferry.” (ref. 23)
Archbishop Laud's arrival at Lambeth was marked by an accident
which was afterwards regarded as an omen of his unhappy fate. The overladen ferryboat as it crossed the river with his servants and horses sank to
the bottom, though happily without loss of life. (ref. 230) The incident was remembered when in 1656 a like accident befell Protector Cromwell's coach and
horses and it was suggested that he too might be heading for disaster. (ref. 231)
During the Civil War, Lambeth Ferry was confiscated with the rest
of the Archbishop's property, and on 6th December, 1648, was sold to
Christopher Wormeall. (ref. 232) On 7th July of that year, when there was insurrection in Surrey, instructions were issued to the keepers of the various ferries
over the Thames from Lambeth upwards, “the better to prevent the confluence of people to those who have taken up arms against the Parliament,”
to arrange for the Horseferry boat to be kept on the Middlesex shore between
sunset and sunrise, and for guards to be placed “so that none be suffered
to pass in the daytime except market people, and such as have business from
the State and passes to warrant their crossing over.” (ref. 233)
At the Restoration the ferry reverted to the Archbishop. In 1664 he
granted a lease of it to Mrs. Leventhorp, (ref. 234) whose successors do not seem to
have carried out their public obligations, for some 40 years later the churchwardens and inhabitants of the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster,
complained of Mr. Leventhorp's “usurping the whole profits of the horseferry,
and neglecting to repair the roads leading thereto.” (ref. 235)
In 1688 Lambeth Ferry was the scene of one of the scene of one of the most dramatic
events connected with the expulsion of the Stuarts. On the night of 9–10th
December, Mary of Modena, James II's queen, and the baby prince (afterwards the Old Pretender) with two nurses left Whitehall under the guidance
of De Lauzun and St. Victor, and drove to the Horseferry. The night was
stormy and so dark that the passengers could not see each other in the boat
though they were closely seated. According to some accounts the queen and
her baby had to spend an hour under the walls of the old church waiting for a
coach, (fn. a) but St. Victor records that a coach and six were ready in an inn
adjoining the landing place and took the party to Gravesend. (ref. 237)
Kip's view of Lambeth Palace, reproduced on Plate 64, shows the
ferryboat crossing the river. It suggests that the ferry plied to and from
Lambeth Palace stairs, but this was not so, the landing place on the Lambeth
side being a little farther south. (fn. b) On arrival there traffic turned left for a few
yards along the northern end of Fore Street (now swallowed up by the
Albert Embankment) and then to the right along Church Street (now
Lambeth Road).
An account of the ferry in the year 1708 contains details of the fees
charged—
|
|
s.
|
d
|
| “For a Man and Horse |
0 |
2 |
| For a Horse and Chaze |
1 |
0 |
| For a Coach and 2 Horses |
1 |
6 |
| a Coach and 4 |
2 |
0 |
| a Coach and 6 |
2 |
6 |
| a Cart loaden |
2 |
6 |
| a Cart or Waggon, each |
2 |
0” (ref. 63)
|
As early as 1664 a proposal was made for the building of a bridge
between Westminster and Lambeth, but had to be dropped because of the
opposition of the citizens of London and the watermen. (ref. 233) It was not until
1736 that an Act was passed authorizing the building of a bridge at Westminster. (ref. 148) The Act provided for the payment of compensation to the Archbishop and his lessees for damage to the Horseferry, and on the opening of
the bridge in 1750 a sum of £3,780 was paid over and the Horseferry ceased
to operate. It appears from the enquiries made at the time that the profits
of the ferry during its last seven years amounted to £928, a sum which would
have been much increased if the patentees had not been at the expense of
building two new boats “the Ferry being in a very bad condition at the
commencement of these 7 years.” (ref. 238)
In 1737 an amending Act (ref. 239) had been passed providing inter alia for
the new bridge to be built either from New Palace Yard or on the site of the
Horseferry. The erection of Westminster Bridge put and end for the time being
to proposals for a bridge on the Horseferry site, but at the beginning of the
19th century these began to revive. In 1809 an Act (ref. 240) was actually passed for
the erection of a bridge on that site, but nothing came of it. In 1828 two bills,
one for the construction of a stone bridge, to be called “the Royal Clarence
Bridge,” and the other for a chain suspension bridge, were introduced into
the House, but because of the opposition they excited were not proceeded
with. (ref. 241) In 1836 (ref. 242) an Act was passed incorporating the Metropolitan Suspension Bridge Company for making a bridge at Lambeth, but nothing was
done, and the powers conferred lapsed. In 1844 Sir Samuel Brown, R.N.,
and others, attended a meeting of Lambeth Vestry and produced a model
“of the intended Suspension Bridge from Church Street to Millbank” and
solicited the support of the churchwarden and overseers to obtain an Act. (ref. 82)
This again proved fruitless, but finally in 1861 (ref. 243) the Lambeth Bridge Act
incorporated a company to construct a bridge to connect Church Street
(now Lambeth Road), Lambeth, with Market Street (now Horseferry Road),
Westminster. The bridge, erected from the designs of P.W. Barlow at a
cost of £48,924, was opened in November, 1862. The termination on the
Lambeth side was a few yards north of the old Horseferry landing stage. (ref. 241)
The bridge was of stiffened suspension type, 828 feet long, divided
into three spans, each 268 feet wide, by piers carrying the towers which
supported the suspension cables. It was 31 feet 9 inches wide between the
parapets. (ref. 241)
While the bridge was the property of a company tolls were charged
on all who used it. It was subsequently bought by the Metropolitan Board of
Works under the provisions of the Metropolitan Toll Bridges Act, 1877,
for £35, 974 and freed from toll.
Even in 1879, when it had been in existence only 17 years, old
Lambeth Bridge was in an unsatisfactory condition. The twisted cables had
suffered from oxidation and the girders were also rusting badly. In spite of
remedial measures the state of the bridge continued to deteriorate and in
1910 it had to be closed to vehicular traffic. Rebuilding was delayed owing
to the 1914–18 war, but in 1924 the London County Council obtained
parliamentary powers to construct a new bridge and to widen and raise the
approaches at either end. The new bridge was completed and opened in
1932. (ref. 241)
Description
The present bridge, which has five spans and is of steel construction, extends from the site of the old abutment on the Westminster side
to a point 81 feet upstream of the centre of the old Lambeth abutment. The
width between the balustrades is 60 feet, there being a 36—foot roadway with
12—foot footways on each side. The balustrade is of cast-iron seated on a
steel cornice and it is surmounted by cast-iron lamp standards, two on either
side of the bridge in each span. There are also granite lamp standards above
the carved panels over the buttresses at the ends of each pier. These piers
and buttresses with the standards and panels are all built in granite. The
obelisks on either side of the bridge approaches are also of granite; each
stands on a pedestal and is terminated by a pineapple finial. The design was
in the main the responsibility of Sir George W. Humphreys, then Chief
Engineer to the Council, in collaboration with the architects, Sir Reginald
Blomfield and G. Topham Forrest.