The Hungerford Bridge crosses 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, s ...

in London, and lies between

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the ...

and

Westminster Bridge Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge crossing over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side. The bridge is painted predominantly green, the same colour as the leather seats ...

. Owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd (who use its official name of Charing Cross Bridge) it is a steel

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...

railway bridge flanked by two more recent, cable-stayed, pedestrian bridges that share the railway bridge's foundation piers, and which are named the Golden Jubilee Bridges. The north end of the bridge is

Charing Cross railway station Charing Cross railway station (also known as London Charing Cross) is a London station group, central London railway terminus between the Strand, London, Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South ...

, and is near

Embankment Pier Embankment Pier is a pier on the River Thames in City of Westminster, London. It is located on the north bank of the river, immediately next to the Hungerford Bridge and directly outside the river entrance to Embankment Underground station. I ...

and the

Victoria Embankment Victoria Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment (the other section is the Chelsea Embankment), a road and river-walk along the north bank of the River Thames in London, England. Built in the 1860s, it runs from the Palace of Westminster to ...

. The south end is near Waterloo station, County Hall, the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...

, and the

London Eye The London Eye, originally the Millennium Wheel, is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. It is the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel, and the most popular paid Tourist attractions in the ...

. Each pedestrian bridge has steps and

lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...

access.

History

The first Hungerford Bridge, designed by

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel ( ; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engi ...

, opened in 1845 as a suspension footbridge. It was named after the then

Hungerford Market Hungerford Market was a greengrocer, produce market in London, at Charing Cross on Strand, London, the Strand. It existed in two different buildings on the same site, the first built in 1682, the second in 1832. The market was first built on th ...

, because it went from the South Bank, specifically a northern point of Lambeth, soon close to

London Waterloo station Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a major central London railway terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Undergrou ...

to that place on the north side of the Thames, specifically to the market (later Charing Cross Station) about 200 yards or metres east of

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was established in the early-19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy, ...

partly in the parish of Saint Martin in the Fields, Westminster, the spire of which can be seen from the bridge. In 1859 the original bridge was bought by the Charing Cross Railway Company, which was extending the South Eastern Railway into its new

. The railway company replaced the suspension bridge with a structure designed by Sir John Hawkshaw, comprising nine spans made of

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

lattice girders, which opened in 1864. The chains from the old bridge were re-used in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

Clifton Suspension Bridge The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Avon Gorge and the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, linking Clifton, Bristol, Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods, Somerset, Leigh Woods in North Somerset. Since opening in 1864, ...

. The original brick pile buttresses of Brunel's footbridge are still in use, though the one on the Charing Cross side is now much closer to the river bank than it was originally, due to the building of the

, completed in 1870. The buttress on the South Bank side still has the entrances and steps from the original steamer pier Brunel built on to the footbridge. To compensate for the removal of the footbridge, walkways were added on each side, with the western one later being removed when the railway was widened. Another walkway was temporarily added in 1951 when an Army

Bailey bridge A Bailey bridge is a type of portable, Prefabrication, pre-fabricated, Truss Bridge, truss bridge. It was developed in 1940–1941 by the British Empire in World War II, British for military use during the World War II, Second World War and saw ...

was constructed for the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

. In 1980 a temporary walkway was erected on the western side while the eastern railway bridge and walkway were refurbished. It is one of three bridges in London to carry pedestrians and rolling stock; the others being Fulham Railway Bridge and Barnes Bridge. The footbridge gained a reputation for being narrow, dilapidated and dangerous; it was the scene of a murder in June 1999. In the mid-1990s a decision was made to replace the footbridge with new structures on either side of the existing railway bridge, and a competition was held in 1996 for a new design. Further justification for new footbridge structures on the west flank and east flank was that the brittle

support pillars of Sir John Hawkshaw's railway bridge were vulnerable to impact from riverboats. It was felt, especially following the

Marchioness disaster The ''Marchioness'' disaster was a collision between two vessels on the River Thames in London in the early hours of 20 August 1989, which resulted in the deaths of 51 people. The pleasure boat ''Marchioness'' sank after being hit twice by the ...

, that these should be clad in concrete at water level; but the bridge's owners,

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the railroad, track, railway signalling, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the railway station, stations of the Transport in England#Rail, British railway syste ...

, could not afford the work. The Golden Jubilee Bridges achieved this protection at no cost to Railtrack.

2025 refurbishment

In January 2025, a three-year project to refurbish Hungerford Bridge began. All the original metalwork will be retained and refurbished; engineers will test the truss pins – which join the supports together – and replace the pin end caps on the girders.

The Golden Jubilee footbridges

The concept design for the new footbridges was won by architects

Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands is a practice of architects, urban designers and masterplanners established in 1986 and practising out of London. History Alex Lifschutz and Ian Davidson met working on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters ...

and engineers

WSP Group WSP Global Inc. is a Canadian consulting firm working mostly in the built environment. It was created in 2012, following Montreal-based Genivar's takeover of British firm WSP Group plc. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. After the pur ...

. Detailed design of the two bridges was carried out by consulting engineers Gifford, now Ramboll UK. The steelwork for the new footbridges was fabricated by Butterley Engineering Ltd. of Ripley, Derbyshire. Their construction was complicated by the need to keep the railway bridge operating without interruptions, the

Bakerloo line The Bakerloo line () is a London Underground line that runs between in suburban north-west London and in south London, via the West End. Printed in brown on the Tube map, it serves 25 stations, 15 of which are underground, over . It runs par ...

tunnels passing only a few feet under the river bed, and the potential danger of unexploded

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

bombs in the Thames mud. Despite extensive surveys of the riverbed,

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

was unwilling to accept these risks and preliminary works were stopped in 2000. The design was modified so that the support structure on the north side, which would have been within of the tube lines, was moved out of the river bed and onto Victoria Embankment. Excavation near the tube lines was carried out when the tube was closed, and foundations were hand-dug for additional security. The two new wide footbridges were completed in 2002. They were named the Golden Jubilee Bridges, in honour of the

Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II The Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II was the international celebration held in 2002 marking the 50th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. It was intended by the Queen to be both a commemoration of her 50 years as ...

, although in practice they are often still referred to as the "Hungerford Footbridges". Hungerford Bridge from London Eye

The long decks were raised using an innovative method called ''incremental launching'', in which each long section was pulled across the river using a long steel truss weighing 300

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s. This process was repeated five times until each deck spanned the river, supported by six temporary piers made of steel and concrete. The seven 25-tonne pylons were then raised over the subsequent two weeks. Once the pylons had been installed, the decks were jacked up to enable their connection with the cable stays suspended from the pylons. The concrete deck was then lowered into its final position and the temporary piers and supports were dismantled. The design of the bridges is complex. Each of the two decks is supported by inclined outward-leaning pylons. The decks are suspended from fans of slender steel rods called deck stays—there are 180 on each deck, made up of over of cable—and are held in position by other rods called backstays. Because the pylons lean the back stays are under tension. The deck is secured in place by steel collars fitted around (although not supported by) the pillars of the railway bridge; the collars are themselves attached to the bridge's foundations by tie-down rods. The entire structure is thus held in place by exploiting the tensions between the pylons and the various stay rods and struts. Class 375 on Hungerford Bridge

The new bridges won the Specialist category in the Royal Fine Art Commission Building of the Year Award in 2003. It gained a Structural Achievement Award commendation in the 2004

Institution of Structural Engineers The Institution of Structural Engineers is a British professional body for structural engineers. In 2021, it had 29,900 members operating in 112 countries. It provides professional accreditation and publishes a magazine, '' The Structural Eng ...

awards, and has won awards from the Civic Trust and for its lighting design. In 2014, the planning application for the now cancelled

Garden Bridge The Garden Bridge project was an unsuccessful private proposal for a pedestrian bridge over the River Thames in London, England. Originally an idea of Joanna Lumley, and strongly supported by then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson, the designer T ...

, revealed in its assessment of pedestrian movement across the Thames that the footbridges are the busiest in London, with an estimated footfall of 8.5 million each year.

In fiction

* "Hungerford Bridge" by

Elizabeth Hand Elizabeth Hand (born March 29, 1957) is an American writer. Life and career Hand grew up in Yonkers and Pound Ridge, New York. She studied drama and anthropology at the Catholic University of America. Since 1988, Hand has lived in coastal Main ...

, Conjunctions 52, 2009. * "The Woman Who Fell In Love With The Hungerford Bridge" by

Lavie Tidhar Lavie Tidhar (; born 16 November 1976) is an Israeli-born writer, working across multiple genres. He has lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa for long periods of time, as well as Laos and Vanuatu. As of 2013, Tidhar has lived in London ...

, Ambit 2014.

References

External links