A reconstruction drawing of London Bridge in about 1590 by Stephen Conlin, specially commissioned for Country Life. It shows the middle section of the bridge, with the spectacular façade of Nonsuch House to the left and the medieval chapel, converted into a house, on the large pier to the right. The cutaway shows the arrangement of houses along the bridge, as well as the massive hammer beams laid parallel to the roadway that supported them. Notice the cellars created within the piers or slung beneath the hammer beams. The house interior shown follows the standard plan of ground-floor shop, first-floor hall, second-floor kitchen and chambers and garrets above. Cross buildings spanned the roadway at intervals and created an intermittent tunnel; at least one foreign visitor walked along the street without realising he had crossed a river. Water for the houses was hauled from the river. The enormous starlings restricted the flow of the river and, at low tide, created treacherous shoots of water between the piers. This restricted flow stilled the water upstream of the bridge and made it easier for it to freeze over.
OLD LONDON BRIDGE, lined with rickety-looking wooden houses, was by far the longest inhabited bridge in Europe, with the homes of more than 500 people—the equivalent of a small town—perched above the rushing waters of the Thames. It was also a crucial part of London’s road network, a principal shopping street and much admired by foreign visitors. A Frenchman, L. Grenade, wrote in 1578 that ‘there is no bridge in the whole of Europe which is on a great river like the Thames and as formidable, as spectacular and as bustling with trade as this bridge in London’. He ranked it with St Paul’s Cathedral, the Royal Exchange and the Tower as one of London’s most impressive structures.
Denne historien er fra October 9, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra October 9, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds