The Hungerford Bridges
The first Hungerford Bridge was opened in 1845. It was a suspension footbridge designed by the famous engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and named after the market which stood where the present day Charing Cross station is.
Competition from nearby Covent Garden saw the demise of the Hungerford market but the name has remained ever since. The same couldn’t be said for Brunel’s bridge however, because in 1859 the South Eastern Railway bought it and replaced it with a new railway bridge and station at Charing Cross. The resourceful Brunel took the chains from the old bridge and then re-used them in his construction of the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
The railway bridge was opened in 1864 and has been here ever since. It’s had a succession of footbridges alongside it over the years, and the latest were introduced in 2002 in recognition of the Queen’s golden jubilee.
The Golden Jubilee Bridges, to give them their official name, connect the Victoria Embankment with the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank. The two bridges afford some great views both up and downriver and have become the busiest in London, and in my opinion, are an attractive and practical addition to the rather nondescript, but functional, railway bridge.
Collectively they’re known as the Hungerford and Golden Jubilee Bridges, but apart from being a mouthful, I think it’s easier to just remember them as the Hungerford Bridges.
Originally posted 2018-02-02 10:53:28.
Quite a city of amazing bridges.
I’ve got a thing about bridges too. You’ve got a couple of good ones on the Tay haven’t you including a replacement for the rail bridge that disastrously collapsed.
Yeah we do..alas… And alas we only have the two at this end of the Tay, but there’s others furhter in. You can stil;l see the original remains of the rail bridge.
That disaster prompted the design for the Forth Bridge didn’t it?
Yes it did. I feel that Bouche kent better when it came to that rail bridge. That bit of the Tay gets hammered by cross winds, from the north but also howling up the river from the North Sea and they collide, making asort of maelstrom. We lived at the back of Newport On Tay at the top of the hill there for nigh on 30 years and it could be really savage at times. The garden furniture routinely flew about in the air and had to be located the next day cos it was no longer in our garden. There was the time the flashing all got ripped and flew about too and alot of prayers were said thta the window wouldn’t shatter at the fron tof the house some nights. I get there’s a problem where the land on the Dundee side is lower when it comes to design but in addition to substandard material, the weather was needing taken into account when it came to the design.
I can just imagine that – but what does Bouche kent mean?
Known . There you go. Noo ye ken some Dundonian.
🤣🤣
You have no idea of the many meanings of the word ‘Ken’, in Dundee.
Does it ever get confusing?
for those not from here yeah. I mean it is a Dundee thing to sit on a bus and overhear an entire conversation of eh and ken. And ken exactly what is being said.
I thought as much 😊
You can be Scottish born and bred but unless you are from Dundee you can forget understanding eh and ken. oh and aye.
Not much chance for me then 🤪
If you have a translator, it’s fine.