London, under the Blackfriars Railway Bridge

Blackfriars Railway Bridge is a railway bridge crossing the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, between

Blackfriars Bridge Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road. The north end is in the City of London near the Inns of Court and Temple Ch ...

and the Millennium Bridge.

First bridge

There have been two structures with the name. The first bridge was opened in 1864 and was designed by

Joseph Cubitt Joseph Cubitt (24 November 1811 – 7 December 1872) was an English civil engineer. Amongst other projects, he designed the Blackfriars Railway Bridge over the River Thames in London. Early life Cubitt was born in Horning, Norfolk, on 24 Nove ...

for the

London, Chatham and Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and no ...

. Massive

abutments An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining wal ...

at each end carried the railway's insignia, preserved and restored on the south side. Following the formation of the Southern Railway in 1924, inter-city and continental services were concentrated on Waterloo, and St Paul's Station became a local and suburban stop. For this reason, the use of the original bridge gradually declined. It eventually became too weak to support modern trains, and was therefore removed in 1985 – all that remains is a series of columns crossing the Thames and the southern abutment, which is a

Grade II listed structure In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

Second bridge

The second bridge, built slightly further downstream (to the east), was originally called St Paul's Railway Bridge and opened in 1886. It was designed by

John Wolfe-Barry Sir John Wolfe Barry (7 December 1836 – 22 January 1918), the youngest son of famous architect Sir Charles Barry, was an English civil engineer of the late 19th and early 20th century. His most famous project is Tower Bridge over the River ...

and

Henry Marc Brunel Henry Marc Brunel (27 June 1842 – 7 October 1903) was an English civil engineer and the son of the celebrated engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and grandson of civil engineer Marc Isambard Brunel. Henry Marc Brunel was born in Westminster, L ...

and is made of wrought iron. It was built by Lucas and Aird. When St Paul's railway station changed its name to Blackfriars in 1937 the name of the bridge was changed as well. At the southern end of the bridge was

Blackfriars Bridge railway station Blackfriars, also known as London Blackfriars, is a central London railway station and connected London Underground station in the City of London. It provides Thameslink services: local (from North to South London), and regional (Bedford and ...

which opened in 1864 before closing to passengers in 1885 following the opening of what is today the main Blackfriars station. Blackfriars Bridge railway station continued as a goods stop until 1964 when it was completely demolished, and much of it redeveloped into offices. As part of the

Thameslink Programme The Thameslink Programme, originally Thameslink 2000, was a £6billion project in south-east England to upgrade and expand the Thameslink rail network to provide new and longer trains between a wider range of stations to the north and to the ...

, the platforms at Blackfriars station have been extended across the Thames and partially supported by the 1864 bridge piers. The project is designed by Will Alsop and built by

Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, Balfour Beatty works acr ...

. The work also includes the installation of a roof covered with photovoltaic

solar panels A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...

. It is the largest of only three solar bridges in the world (the others being Kennedy Bridge in Bonn, Germany, and

Kurilpa Bridge The Kurilpa Bridge (originally known as the Tank Street Bridge) is a 63 million pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Brisbane River in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The bridge connects Kurilpa Point in South Brisbane to Tank Street in the ...

in Australia). Other green improvements include

sun pipe The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

s and systems to collect rain water.

References

External links

* * {{Bridges of Central London Railway bridges in London Bridges completed in 1886 Bridges in the City of London Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark Transport in the London Borough of Southwark Bridges across the River Thames Bridge light displays

First bridge

Second bridge

See also

References

External links