Waterloo Bridge

Waterloo Bridge (headroom 27’10")traverses the Thames and is a graceful modern structure designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and built in 1942 using predominately female labour. This was a quirk of the war years, when the men were away fighting at the front. The first bridge on this site opened in 1817. The name comes from the Battle of Waterloo, an important British victory during the Napoleonic Wars. The current bridge was completed in 1945 and is made of Portland stone.

Both a vehicle and foot bridge, Waterloo Bridge leads to the many art and entertainment establishments along the South Bank. The first Waterloo Bridge was completed by John Rennie in 1817 after six years work. Baron M. Dupin described it as ‘a colossal monument worthy of Sesostris and the Caesars’ and to Canova it was simply ‘the noblest bridge in the world.’ It was unique at the time for having a level roadway supported by nine semi-elliptical arches with a span of equal size and elevation. Built mostly of Cornish granite the bridge was 378 metres long over the river and 13 metres wide.

Sir Gilbert Scot was commissioned to design the new one. Work began in 1937 but the official foundation stone, cut out of a stone from the old bridge, was not laid until 1939. Nothing ornate was put in the cavity under the stone as an offering to the Thames, just coins, postage stamps and all the daily newspapers within a copper cylinder. Delays occurred because of World War II even though the bridge was deemed a priority, and, with few men available, women carried out much of the construction work.

The new Waterloo Bridge was the first to be made with reinforced concrete beams, and despite being damaged by German bombers on several occasions the 'Ladies Bridge' was opened to pedestrians and two lanes of traffic in 1942. It was opened by a member of the public, Charlie Barnard, a steel fixer from Ealing. He removed seven red flags at the Surrey end and the bridge was open prompting a race to be the first across that was won by Leonard Mitchell, a 16 year old school boy from Balham.

This makes it very much the people's bridge, as well as being a triumph of confident simplicity and symmetry. The great sweeping arches, that appear grander because of the flatness of the bridge itself, manage to give the solid bridge structure an illusion of lightness. Being able to see through the balustrades adds to this as vehicles and people appear to glide over it. This huge bridge manages to be both majestic and unobtrusive with an austere beauty and lack of decorative features that help to underscore the fantastic views up and down river from the bridge but also through it.

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