Lillie Bridge is a road bridge that links

Old Brompton Road Old Brompton Road is a major street in the South Kensington district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. It starts from South Kensington tube station, South Kensington Underground station and runs south-west, through a ma ...

in the

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (often known by its initialism as RBKC) is an Inner London, Inner London borough with Royal borough, royal status. It is the List of English districts by area, smallest borough in London and the secon ...

with Lillie Road in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham. It crosses two railways: the West London Line on the

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, it now serves a large part of Greate ...

and the Wimbledon branch of the

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 ...

West Brompton station West Brompton is a Grade II-listed interchange station located on Old Brompton Road ( A3218) in West Brompton, West London. The station is served by the District line of the London Underground; the Mildmay line of the London Overground; and ...

History

Its history goes back to at least the 18th-century when there was a wooden foot-bridge, called 'Gunter's Bridge' after landowner and confectioner James Gunter (1731-1819), over a tributary of 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 ...

, variously called

Counter's Creek Counter's Creek, ending in Chelsea Creek, the lowest part of which still exists, was a stream that flowed from Kensal Green, by North Kensington and flowed south into the River Thames on the Tideway at Sands End, Fulham. Its remaining open w ...

, or Counter's ditch (or sewer), that separated the parishes of

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

and

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

at this spot. A Magistrates' enquiry into the bridges of the

County of Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the Thames in the south, the Lea to the east and the Colne to the west. A line of hi ...

, set up in 1820, described it thus: ''Footbridge of Wood called Gunter's Bridge in the Footpath between Earls Court and Walham Green. ..This bridge has been built upwards of Fifty Years and is kept in repair at the joint expense of Kensington and Fulham Parishes. ..The tide flows to a considerable distance above this Bridge.'' A stone and brick structure was built in its place, when Counter's Creek was converted into the

Kensington Canal The Kensington Canal was a canal, about two miles long, opened in 1828 in London from the River Thames on the parish boundary between Chelsea and Fulham, along the line of Counter's Creek, to a basin near Warwick Road in Kensington. It had one l ...

in 1826. It opened for trade in 1828. Remnants of the bridge beneath the current road bridge are still visible from platform 4 on the Overground Line at the neighbouring station. The new bridge was subsequently named after Sir John Scott Lillie, the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

veteran and inventor and early 19th-century developer on the Fulham side, who was also involved with the canal project. Its railway associations go back to 1838 under the supervision of engineer,

Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson , (honoris causa, Hon. causa) (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of hi ...

. The canal bridge was used to carry the road over the railway to the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

yard which had replaced the canal basin and wharves behind Reckitt Street, Fulham. Lillie Canal Bridge

A new much enlarged road bridge was built over the stone and brick canal crossing in 1860 by the railway engineer, John Fowler in connection with his construction of the

Grade II Listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

West Brompton station. Since then. the bridge became known for the sporting venues to the south, as the '

Lillie Bridge Grounds The Lillie Bridge Grounds was a sports ground on the Fulham side of West Brompton, London. It opened in 1866, coinciding with the opening of West Brompton station. It was named after the local landowner, Sir John Scott Lillie (1790–1868) ...

' opened in 1869 and closed by arson and a riot in 1887. It was the scene of athletics, football and county cricket, as well as cycling and ballooning. To the north it has become associated with the eponymous Lillie Bridge Depot, built in 1871 as an engineering hub for the early railways and latterly, a maintenance centre for London Transport's tube network. Fowler's bridge has been lengthened and strengthened in ensuing years. The brickwork in the original parapets has been repaired but the four stone plaques commemorating the dates of re-building, from 1860 onwards, are retained in the present bridge. Both parapets were obscured for decades by tall advertising hoardings only taken down since 2012 for the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

, when

Indoor volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

was played at Earl's Court.

Green corridor

In spite of repeated disturbance since the early 19th-century, with canal and railway building, the verges of the West London Line and the proximity of

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is since 1852 the first (and only) London cemetery to be Crown Estate, Crown property, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington a ...

and the town gardens of Empress Place in Fulham, had ensured the survival of a rich biodiversity in the area of the bridge. Most notably there is a pond, remnant of the ever-present Counter's Creek, along platform 4 of West Brompton station on the Fulham side. The pond and its acre of 'scrub' was, until 5 years ago, supervised by the erstwhile

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 ...

and local volunteers from Fulham

Groundwork UK Groundwork UK is an environmental organisation in the United Kingdom. It is based in Birmingham and is a registered charity under English law. History In 1980, the Countryside Commission launched an initiative known as UFEX80. This was re-brande ...

. The defunct London Ecology Unit produced in 1993 an audit of the flora and fauna to be found here. There are said to have been 140 species of flora. In 2016 the Bee Friendly Trust installed on platform 2 of the

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road tube station (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines), Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One br ...

at West Brompton station, a number of flower boxes to attract pollinating insects.

Future prospects

Lillie Bridge, along with the borough boundary, the natural '

Green corridor A wildlife corridor, also known as a habitat corridor, or green corridor, is a designated area habitat (ecology), that connects wildlife populations that have been separated by human activities or structures, such as development, roads, or land ...

' and built heritage, are scheduled to disappear in the regeneration plans for the

Earls Court Exhibition Centre Earls Court Exhibition Centre was a major international exhibition and events venue in London, England. At its peak it is said to have generated a £2 billion turnover for the economy. It replaced exhibition and entertainment grounds, original ...

site.

References

Gallery

File:1860 plaque on Lillie Bridge, Fulham.jpg, 1860 stone plaque on Lillie Bridge, Fulham File:West Brompton Station 1974041 71c1cfef.jpg, On the right, Lillie Bridge obscured by advertising hoardings in 1963 File:West London Line - geograph.org.uk - 1055169.jpg, The West London Line passing under Lillie Bridge towards

Kensington (Olympia) station Kensington (Olympia) is an interchange station between the Mildmay line of the London Overground and National Rail services operated by Southern, located in Kensington, West London. Limited services on the District line of the London Underg ...

File:Rails Through Earls Court - geograph.org.uk - 1691033.jpg, Lillie Bridge Depot shed to the right against

File:View from Lillie Bridge northwards 2015.jpg, View from Lillie Bridge onto Earls Court II demolition site, 2015 File:Lillie Grounds.jpg, Wrestling at Lillie Bridge Grounds in 1879 File:Empress State Building.JPG, Tree Canopy behind Empress Place viewed from Lillie Bridge File:Green corridor from Lillie Bridge.jpg, Green corridor along West London Line from Lillie Bridge File:Lillie Bridge Fulham, north parapet 2015.jpg, North parapet brickwork on Lillie Bridge 2016 File:1865 plaque on north parapet of Lillie Bridge, Fulham, 2015.jpg, 1865 plaque on north parapet of Lillie Bridge File:Pond_at_West_Brompton_station.jpg, remnant of Counter's Creek at West Brompton station, Fulham

External links

* http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/West_London_Line.html * http://www.beefriendlytrust.org/ {{coord, 51.4873, -0.1961, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Bridges in London 19th century in London Bridges completed in 1826 Bridges completed in 1860 Rebuilt buildings and structures in the United Kingdom Bridges completed in 1865 History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Transport in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Areas of London