LONDON BRIDGE AND ITS PAGEANTS

"On thee, the peaceful Pilgrim train
Have met the blessing sight,
And laurell'd Kings and Conquerors
Pass'd proudly from the fight!
The traitor, and the true man too,
 The graceless, and the good,
By turns have blacken'd in the sun
Where thy proud portals stood."

-J. P.

In the previous chapter we noted that the history of Southwark was the history of London Bridge. We should exaggerate but little if we said that the history of the bridge is  the history of England presented in a series of vivid silhouettes.

When, and by whom, was the first bridge built? That we cannot say with certainty, but the discovery of many Roman coins in the river-bed makes us conjecture that the earliest bridge was of Roman origin, built when the Romans were consolidating their work in Britain, during the great building age of Hadrian. It probably consisted of great beams supported on piles, and "the coins held ready to pay the toll slipped from careless fingers through the gaping boards into the stream below." Some may have been thrown in as a religious offering to the deity of the river.

Olaf, the King of Norway, the friend and ally of Ethelred the Unready, is said to have broken down London Bridge in an attack on the Danes. Here is an extract from the quaintly worded account:

"And the host of the Northmen rowed up under the bridge, and lashed cables round the pales, which upheld the bridge, and they fell to their oars and rowed downstream as

fast as they might .. and the pales having broken from under it, the bridge broke down by reason thereof."

This incident has been regarded as the origin of the children's game "London Bridge is broken down," but there have been so many breakings down since the time of Olaf that it is unnecessary to force the idea of so remote a source.

To-day, we are reminded of the battle, and of Ethelred's gallant ally, by the name St. Olave applied to church and schools, and corrupted into Tooley Street (originally St. Olave's Street).

The damage wrought in the battle was soon repaired, some authorities say by the monks of St. Mary Overie monastery close at hand; but the bridge was swept away by a terrible storm in 1090. It was rebuilt and again destroyed, this time by fire, about fifty years later.

The wooden bridge was then replaced by a stone one in 1176, and Peter of Colechurch, the chaplain of a church on the north side of Poultry, was the architect. A donation from Henry II towards the expense of the building is supposed to have come from a tax upon wool, and gave rise to the saying that London Bridge was built upon woolpacks.

The bridge was 926 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 60 feet above the level of the water. was supported by 20 arches which rested on 19 massive piers. Over the central pier, which projected beyond the others, was erected a two-storied chapel dedicated to St. Thomas à Becket, whose tragic death was fresh in men's minds. In the crypt of this chapel Peter the architect was buried, and the upper chapel was used for Divine Service until the time of the Reformation.

Houses and shops were built on both sides of the bridge, and the overhanging stories formed a continuous covered way.

The space between was so narrow that there was great danger to pedestrians. There was no regular footway, and the safest plan was to follow closely in the wake of a passing carriage. Pennant, writing in much later days, says:

"I well remember the street on London Bridge, narrow, darksome, and dangerous to passengers from the multitude of carriages; frequent arches of strong timber crossed the street from the tops of the houses, to keep them together and from falling into the river. Nothing but use could preserve the repose of the inmates, who soon grew deaf to the noise of falling waters, the clamour of watermen and the frequent shrieks of drowning wretches."

The sixth picture of Hogarth's "Marriage à la Mode," in the National Gallery, depicts the London Bridge of the 18th century. The shops on the bridge were owned by pin and needle makers, shoemakers, glovers, mercers and hosiers, and some interesting shop signs, and brass or copper tokens are still in existence. For example: "The Lamb and the Breeches" was the sign of a leather-seller's; "The Lock of Hair" that of a shop which supplied wigs, pomades, etc.; while "The Three Bibles," "The Angel," and "The Looking Glass," were bookshops that caused the bridge to rank with Paternoster Row as a literary locality.

Part of the bridge between two piers near the Surrey side formed a drawbridge which was raised in times of peril, and at the south end of the bridge was built a square tower over a wide archway. The battlements of this tower were ornamented with poles bearing the heads of traitors, occasionally twenty at a time a gruesome warning to the passer-by. Among the victims of this disgraceful custom were William Wallace, the valiant Scottish patriot, Bishop Fisher, and Sir Thomas More, one of the noblest and best of Englishmen.

In the basement of the London Museum there is a delightful model of old London Bridge; those who study it carefully will notice the extreme narrowness of the passages under the arches. So dangerous were they that a proverb became current that London Bridge was made for wise men to go over and fools to go under. Conspicuous on the model is a tall wooden building known in its day as "Nonesuch House." It was unique, in that it was brought over in pieces from Holland, and put together by wooden pegs, without a single nail.

On the south bank of the river, in what is now Tooley Street, stood the Bridge House and Yard. Materials for the repair of the bridge were kept here, and in the 16th century it was used also as a storing place for wheat, and a bakehouse for the advantage of poor citizens.

During Queen Elizabeth's reign, Peter Morris, a Dutchman, erected a machine for delivering drinking water from the Thames to London. Wheels for driving the machinery were placed in the arches of the bridge; water was pumped to the height of St. Magnus' Church and then distributed to the City.

The old bridge lasted 650 years. In the beginning of the 19th century its state was dangerous despite many repairs, and so in 1824 the present bridge was begun, 100 feet further west than its predecessor; and the old one, with all its romantic associations, passed away.

To write a description of all the great scenes in history with which old London Bridge is connected would be impossible. Let us try to picture a few of the most typical.

Here is a Water Tournament of the 12th century. The bridge and balconies of the houses are crowded with amused spectators; the river is thronged with small boats. In the middle of the river is a target strongly fastened to a mast; "a youngster standing upright in the stern of the boat, made to move as fast as oars and current can carry it, is to strike the target with his lance, and if, in hitting it, he break his lance and keep his place in the boat, he gains his point and triumphs; but if it happens that the lance be not shivered by the force of the blow, he is of course tumbled into the water, and away goes his vessel without him."

A merry-hearted people were these Londoners of early times, but they could show a very ugly temper on occasion. When Queen Eleanor, the wife of Henry III, passed on her way from the Tower to Windsor, the Londoners, who idolised Simon de Montfort, gathered on the bridge and pelted her with mud and stones, and later, to rescue their hero, the Royal troops burst open the fortifications of the South Wark.

The story of the Black Prince at Poitiers is well known. After the battle he made a triumphal return to London across the bridge his graceful courtesy and humility making a strong appeal, as he rode on a little black pony beside the captured French king on his white horse.

Two scenes of importance occurred on the bridge in the succeeding reign. The first was connected with Wat Tyler's rebellion. Here are the words of Stow, the great London historian :

"On which day (June 13th) also in the morning, the Commons of Kent brake downe the stew houses neare to London bridge … after which they went to the bridge in hope to have entered the Citty, but the Maior (William Walworth) coming thither before, fortified the place, caused the bridge to be drawne up and fastened with a great chaine of yron across to restrain their entry."

The other scene is quite different in character. A dispute between an English and Scottish nobleman as to the relative courage and skill of English and Scots led to a challenge. The bridge was chosen as the jousting ground, and, amid a gaily-dressed throng presided over by Richard himself, the two knights met in combat. The superb horsemanship of the Scotsman prompted the cry that he was bound to his saddle. To refute this, he leapt lightly to the ground and back again before his opponent could attack. The English knight went down after the third encounter, and the gentleness and courtesy of the victor showed the perfection of chivalry. There is a very fine picture of this incident in the approach to the Guildhall Library.

During the reign of Henry V, there was much coming and going on the bridge. Soldiers crossed on their way to or from the French wars, and Henry himself passed in stately procession-first after his victorious return from Agincourt, then with his bride Katharine of France; and lastly, when with great pomp and splendour his body was borne to its resting place in the Abbey.

The coronation procession of Henry VII must have presented a distinctly comical aspect, for Stow tells us that the nobles rode two on a horse to signify the union of the two roses of York and Lancaster.

Three times has the bridge been attacked by rebels. First it resisted the advance of Wat Tyler, then in Henry VI's reign it was crossed by Jack Cade and his followers; and again, in Mary's reign, it witnessed the approach of Sir Thomas Wyatt and his friends, who objected to Mary's Spanish marriage. The drawbridge was pulled up and the gates shut; guns were stationed at the foot of the bridge, and the Tower guns were pointed on Southwark.

So ominous were the preparations that the inhabitants besought Wyatt to leave them, "so in speedy manner he marched away, telling them that they should not be killed or hurt in his behalf."

Perhaps one of the most joyful scenes of which the old bridge could tell was when the flags captured from the Spanish Armada were brought here to be hung upon the gates. Imagine the tumultuous joy of the people at this sign of security from a dreaded enemy, a security which expressed itself in joyous revellings and stately pageants.

Less than 100 years later the bridge shared in the great catastrophe which befell London in 1666. Many are the accounts of the Great Fire from which we could quote. Here is one not quite so well known as others:

"Now it rusheth down the hill towards the bridge, crosseth Thames Street, invadeth St. Magnus Church at the bridge foot and though that Church was so great, yet it was not a sufficient barricade against this conqueror: but having scaled and taken this fort, it shooteth flames with so much the greater advantage unto all places round about and a great building of houses upon the bridge is quickly thrown to the ground; then the conqueror, being stayed in his course at the bridge, marcheth back to the City again, and runs along with great noise and violence through Thames Street westward."

Thus Southwark was saved by its bridge from the fire of 1666, only to suffer from an almost equally disastrous one ten years later. In the early months of 1684 a great frost, which lasted for several weeks, caused the river to wear a most unusual aspect. So thick was the ice that streets of shops were erected thereon, carriages rolled by, a whole ox was roasted, and horse and coach races were held on the hard slippery surface. When at last the thaw set in, so great was the rush of water under the bridge that the passage became more than usually perilous.

Many other scenes in the bridge's history might be described, but perhaps these will suffice to show the very important part it played in English life.

The neighbouring bridge of Southwark was built in 1819. It was owned by the Southwark Bridge Company and was bought by the City of London in 1868. It was opened free of toll, in order to facilitate trade between North and South London, but it proved too narrow and inconvenient for modern needs, and was rebuilt between 1912 and 1921.