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| Old London Bridge |
Old London
Bridge was a world unto itself. Not considered London, it was a Liberty, or
suburb. People were born, lived, married, and died there, some without stepping
off the Bridge the whole of their lives.
Built in the
years between 1176-1209, began by King Henry II, the first Plantagenet king of
England, and finished during the reign of King John (who was forced to sign the
Magna Carta), it was a massive structure that acted like a dam. It stood
stalwart against heavy tides, ice during cold winters, and prevented invading
ships to pass upriver.
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| Pool of London (Tower of London would be on the Right) |
So strongly
built, the Old London Bridge lasted 622 years before being pulled down in
1830's. The location of the current London Bridge is some 180 feet upriver from
the old.
It was a stone
structure of 19 arches and a wooden drawbridge. Houses, shops, churches and
other assorted buildings stood on the bridge.
The anchors holding the bridge in
place were called starlings. Massive and feet-like, they were comprised of
broken stones and rubble. The starlings compressed the river flow into
one-third of its width, causing the tides to rush through the arches like heavy
waterfalls. The rush of water going out to sea could be as high as 6-8 feet,
depending on the phase of the moon.
It brought out
the reckless, usually young men, to 'shoot the bridge'. Boats would gain speed
and if the water wasn't too high where heads scraped the tops of the arches,
or be drowned, they'd fly through and shoot out the other side, over the Pool of London (ships of sail anchored there). After a moment or two dangling above the Pool they'd drop like a rock to
the water. Many died upon a wager, or from mishap by getting pulled into the
fast current.
If one were
lucky, the wherriman pulled his boat to the river's edge. His passenger got out
to walk around the end of the bridge, where he'd catch another wherry in the
Pool and finish his journey.
The bridge had a
row of houses on either side of its length with shops at road level. This made
the actual road from London to Southwark no more than 12 feet across. Sources
state there were about 140 shops at one time, the two story chapel of St Thomas
a Becket, Nonesuch House, and the gatehouse (no name). The bridge, with its heavy
flow of water, sported water-wheels, corn-mills, and on the London side the
water works that supplied running water into surrounding houses.
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| Ice Fair on River Thames, London Bridge in background |
Then, there was
the gateway at the Southwark side where heads of traitors were displayed. The
Keeper of the Heads had full managerial control over this section of the
Bridge. He impaled newly removed (from the body) heads on pikes, and tossed the old ones into
the river. When the original bridge was pulled down, workers found a bevy of skulls in
the mud.
Sometimes,
reality is stranger than fiction. While researching the Bridge, I came across
the following:
When King Henry
VIII demanded Catholicism no longer be the favorite religion of the land, Sir
Thomas More refused to follow his liege. As a result he was beheaded. His body
was placed in a coffin and his head put on a pike above London Bridge. After
the allowable time frame where the Keeper of the Heads knew seagulls had feasted
and nothing should remain but putrid flesh and hollow eye sockets, Sir Thomas'
daughter beseeched him not to throw her father's head in the river. Instead,
she requested the Keeper give her the head so she may join it with the body,
and they be interred together.
The Keeper
agreed, but was amazed when he removed the head. It remained pink and whole as
if still alive...
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Thanks to Wikicommons Public Domain
Reference: Old
London Bridge, the Story of the Longest Inhabited Bridge in Europe by Patricia
Pierce, Headline Bok Publishing, 2001.
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