Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
large clock, which seems so awkwardly placed now, actually overhung the roadway of Old
London Bridge.
Turn right and immediately under the modern bridge are steps up to the top. Old London
Bridge was just downstream of the present bridge. At the site of the new bridge there was
a waterworks with waterwheels taking four million gallons a day from the river to supply
ten thousand customers.
Although it was shorn of its famous buildings, and had been widened and refaced in the
mid-eighteenth century, the bridge when Jane knew it was still the famous structure of the
nursery rhyme.
It was so narrow that traffic jams were common. As a result there were many coaching
inns south of the river in Borough High Street where passengers could change to more con-
venient transport.
The bridge was constantly under repair. It was severely damaged in the winter of
1813-14 when the last frost fair was held on the river; work on its replacement was begun
in 1824. The current bridge, where we end our walk, was opened in 1973.