Why is London Bridge called London Bridge? Because it's in London. But there are lots of bridges in London. London Bridge was the first. But it looks really modern. Because it was rebuilt. Are there lots of really interesting things about
London Bridge and its history and its future that unravel into a medium-sized documentary about
the river Thames and its crossings in general? Yes. ♫ ♫ ♫ The river Thames is the reason London exists. Bck in the year 43 the Romans chose this spot to
build a bridge and found their city of Londinium connected by road to the rest of Britain
and by sea to the rest of the world. While there's nothing physical
left of the Roman bridge itself except this apparently It's thanks to the Roman bridge that
modern London is where it is today. Here. After the Romans left, various temporary
wooden bridges came and went on this site. Probably. But it wasn't until 1209 when along came
a proper permanent one made of stone and it was a corker. Like many bridges in medieval Europe,
London Bridge was a living bridge with shops, houses, a church and tiny people made of plasticine. The roadway was so narrow and the roofs on the buildings stuck out so far that the dark
passageway felt almost like a tunnel. At its most congested it could
take an hour to get across. To manage congestion the City Corporation
charged a toll to cross the bridge and ordered that all northbound traffic used the
west side and all southbound use the east side. This may be the origin of why we
now drive on the left in Britain. I just checked and it isn't. One disappointing thing about the otherwise
brilliant bridge was its dull name. But the reason for its dull
name was quite interesting. London Bridge was for many
centuries the only bridge in London. Which is surprising given how many thousands of people lived and worked
on both sides of the river. So why was it like this for so long? The Bridge House Estates which
ran London Bridge on behalf of the City of London Corporation made
a great deal of money from the tolls and they were keen to keep it that way. In 1664 when King Charles II started making
plans to build his own bridge over the Thames the City Corporation persuaded him
to forget about it with a free loan open brackets massive bribe closed brackets of a hundred thousand pounds. Despite the stronghold the City
Corporation strong held over the river London got on absolutely
fine with just the one bridge because, rather bizarrely,
most Londoners never used it. Unless you had a horse and
cart full of heavy stuff why bother using the expensive
and slow London Bridge when you can simply hop on a wherry? Wherries, pronounced werries, were long thin
boats that could carry up to five people. The streets of London were
so congested that a wherry was often the fastest way to get around town whether you needed to cross the river or not. The men who rowed the wherries, the
watermen, were the taxi drivers of their day. They had to know the locations of all the stairs
and the times when the tide came in and out. In their heyday there were more than
ten thousand of them on the river. And so London remained merrily monobridged throughout the 13th, 14th,
15th, 16th and 17th century and that was fine by everybody until... In 1720 the Prime Minister Robert
Walpole was in a rush to get back to Westminster for an important debate
in Parliament after visiting the king. When he arrived at the Fulham horse ferry, the watermen were having a pint
on the opposite side of the river and they refused to come across
until they'd finished their drink. Walpole missed the debate, and from
that day declared war on the river. This is all your fault! Walpole presented a bill to Parliament making the legislation to allow new bridges
over the Thames for the first time whether the City Corporation
or the waterman liked it or not which led to London finally getting its bridge
number two right outside the Houses of Parliament. Westminster Bridge opened in 1750 bringing London Bridge's
centuries old monopoly to an end. Not everyone was happy about this. The
City Corporation demanded compensation. So the crown gave them compensation which they used to get revenge on Westminster
Bridge by building Blackfriars Bridge in 1769 giving Londoners a whopping
three bridges to choose from. Crossing by bridge had now become a lot easier and
faster and more normal than crossing by wherry. This was bad news for the watermen who were already having a really tough time with
the closure of the theatres on the South Bank. It was the beginning of the end for the wherries. But amazingly they never disappeared completely. Hundreds of years later the Company of
Watermen and Lightermen is still around today and they still stage a protest
whenever a new bridge is proposed. How's that going for you? London was growing up. And it was time to say goodbye
to the old-fashioned traditional things that were holding it back. And that included London Bridge itself. Over the centuries, London Bridge had become a medieval relic that was far too
narrow for 18th century traffic The bridge needed a makeover. So in 1761, to make a bit more room, the Bridge Houses estates decided to remove
the houses and shops from the bridge. But it was no good. The structure was still a crumbling death
trap that needed repairing every five minutes as made famous in the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. The whole thing had to go. And so in 1831, Old London Bridge
was replaced by New London Bridge designed by a father and son
team both called John Rennie. To avoid disruption and ease construction New London Bridge was built slightly to the
left of where the old London Bridge was. If you look carefully at a modern
map, you can clearly see how the old streets line up to show exactly
where the Old London Bridge used to be. London's bridge-volution was only just beginning. In the 19th century with London's population swelling faster than ever
on both sides of the river new bridges were being thrown across the
thames one after the other like Kerplunk. Bridges for people, horses, and
these new things called trains too. London just couldn't get enough of them. Bridges bridges bridges
bridges bridges bridges bridges bridges bridges bridges bridges bridges. London Bridge wasn't special anymore. It blended in with all the others getting on
with its job in a no-nonsense sort of way. After 130 years which in London
terms isn't really that long, London Bridge already found itself
once again in a bit of a pickle. By the 1960s, London had turned into a car city. To make room for all the
commuters that wanted to use it, London Bridge would need to
at least triple in width. The City Corporation once again
had the expensive task of building a modern bridge in place of the old one. But the trouble was, in the 20th century it was much harder to raise the huge amount of
money needed for this sort of project. And so they made the unusual
but ingenious decision to put the two Rennies' bridge up for sale. Brochures and TV ads were
produced offering a "unique piece of british history" to the highest bidder. The highest bidder was American oil tycoon
and chainsaw manufacturer Robert P McCulloch. Ho hooo!! Papa's got a bridge! who had the old London Bridge shipped
across the Atlantic brick by brick and put back together in Lake Havasu City, Arizona where it's become something
of a tourist attraction. There's a famously not true at all urban myth that McCulloch thought he was buying the
much more famous and impressive Tower Bridge and bought the wrong bridge by mistake. And that's where we get the expression
"I bought the wrong bridge by mistake." Not all of London Bridge went to Arizona. These steps and this arch from the Rennie's bridge are still here and here today on the South Bank. Whilst it's great that some of the
Rennies' bridge has been kept alive its modern replacement is a
structure best described as a shame. The necessary rebuild of
London Bridge in the late 60s coincided with a flash-in-the-pan fashion
for brutalist functional architecture. New New London Bridge completed in
1973 is a wide grey concrete slab devoid of even the slightest
hint of its rich history. It's impressive for the sheer amount
of nothing there is to say about it. With London Bridge getting
more boring every century the next one coming in 2182 will likely
be made entirely of beige jumpers. Eeerrm... Yep. I think that's everything I
can think of about London Bridge. But London does of course have many more bridges. And there are lots of interesting
things to say about them too. So if you're not busy join me next time for another thrilling
installment of Unfinished London. When I want to access the internet from
another country, I just use my long arm. ♫ He's got a very very long arm ♫ A very long arm indeed. ♫ He doesn't use it to fight crime ♫ or give help to those in need. ♫ He says it's my arm, and I'll do what I want ♫ That's always his excuse. ♫ It's a very big shame his very long arm ♫ has not been put to better use. I've just realised that although i've successfully
managed to log on to the internet in france I can't actually see the computer. - Then you need...
- Aaargh! Sorry. Then you need Surfshark. Surfshark what is? Surfshark is a VPN. A browser extension and app that
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Oh, the mapman from the mapmen!
Old London Bridge looks like it would have been absolutely wild to walk around in. Probably have to get used to the horrid smell though.
It fell down- THERES A WHOLE SONG ABOUT IT
I love the reflection listening to the real him at 1:26.
Great video.
"How's that going for you?"
jump cut
I don't know if I've ever seen anyone else who could actually make me watch the ad at the end.
FYI, this is a great channel to subscribe to. MapMen in particular is equal parts funny and informative. Great channel
Thanks for pointing me to a new YT channel I can get lost in.
Was that Keith from The Office (UK) at 6:00?