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Unseen Images of Tower Bridge Under Construction

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Saturday 9 July 2011

Unseen Images of Tower Bridge Under Construction

These images show Tower Bridge under construction in the 1880's. They were saved from a skip many years ago by a neighbour of mine. The skip was outside the former offices of one of the original contractors. He has kindly scanned them and agreed that I can share them here.








There are a total of 20 images in the set, I will publish the rest here over the coming week. Some details about the bridge, which celebrates the 125th anniversary of its foundation this year, from the Tower Bridge website here.

The author of this blog is a qualified City of Westminster Tour Guide who runs unique walking tours throughout Westminster, see tabs for details.

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15 Comments:

At 9 July 2011 at 12:31 , Blogger Alexander said...

These pictures are amazing! I love the train tracks snaking over the bridge. I wonder if they are still there.

 
At 9 July 2011 at 13:58 , Blogger Sandy said...

These are FANTASTIC! Thank you for sharing.

 
At 9 July 2011 at 20:49 , Blogger Dolores William said...

wow !!!!!

 
At 9 July 2011 at 22:30 , Blogger Peter Berthoud said...

Thank you all for your kind comments! I must admit that I am a bit overwhelmed by the interest this post has created!

Alexander, the tracks are no longer there I am afraid. They might have been used for moving materials around during construction?

More unseen pics on Monday, the linking-up of the high walkways.

 
At 10 July 2011 at 04:56 , Anonymous Dr. Ashok Kumar Sharma said...

Dear Peter,
You did a historic job. I am going to tweet it right now all over the World. And see the traffic you get within days.

Humanity would never forget you. Try to add some recent photos as well. Some new points. How it looks now. Some pictures of the transformation over the years.

If you can afford, then buy a website and earn money. Get ads. Run the site from the traffic you get there.
Blessings from India.

 
At 10 July 2011 at 10:10 , Blogger Tolstoy said...

I find it outrageous that someone wouldn't appreciate the historic significance of these and allow them to end up in a skip. Peoples sense of history is so lacking these days.

 
At 10 July 2011 at 12:35 , Blogger Daveograve said...

Amazing find

 
At 10 July 2011 at 14:44 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pete, Excellent find. Great Photos. Was describing the building only yesterday as I took some friends from Manchester over it
Cheers, TonyO

 
At 11 July 2011 at 09:34 , Blogger Peter Berthoud said...

Thanks to you all for your comments. I have just published the second set of pictures and will put the final group up on Wednesday. I have included a link to an excellent quick guide to the bridge from Carolin's Miscellany.

 
At 11 July 2011 at 11:03 , Blogger LisaG said...

Amazing pictures & what a wonderful find. So glad they've been rescued & what better person to rescue them but a tour guide.

 
At 11 July 2011 at 23:55 , Blogger Peter Scott said...

Stunning stuff. Any chance of getting the blueprints?

 
At 12 July 2011 at 01:15 , Anonymous George Kedourie said...

Thank You Sir!

It is a huge pleasure to spend time lookking at these images and realising what was involved in building the bridge.

One thing is very curious though. From the images, it is almost as if there were only a dozen guys building the bridge, there is no sense of urgency or speed in any of the images...

Looking forward to the next set and hoping that you saved the best till the end!

 
At 13 July 2011 at 09:12 , Anonymous Anthony Anderson said...

What a great set of photos, and to think they were almost lost to us....would have been very sad. Many thanks for sharing them

 
At 15 July 2011 at 23:03 , Blogger Gem said...

I go over this bridge every day and it is utterly wonderful to see these photos. Thank you.

 
At 8 August 2011 at 17:12 , Anonymous Richard Court said...

Sir John Wolfe Barry, the engineer who completed the construction of Tower Bridge, (from the original design by Sir Horace Jones), was a great-great-great-great-uncle of mine. Thanks for sharing these extraordinary images.

 

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