Chelsea Bridge - Background

Background

The Red House Inn was an isolated inn on the south bank of the River Thames in the marshlands of Battersea Fields, about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the prosperous farming village of Battersea. Although not on any major road, since the 16th century its isolation and lack of any police presence made it a popular destination for visitors from London and Westminster who would travel to the Red House by wherry, attracted by Sunday dog fighting, bare-knuckle boxing bouts and illegal horse racing. Because of its lawless nature, Battersea Fields was also a popular area for duelling, and was the venue for the 1829 duel between the then Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Winchilsea.

The town of Chelsea, on the north bank of the Thames about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Westminster, was an important industrial centre. Although by the 19th century its role as the centre of the British porcelain industry had been overtaken by the West Midlands, its riverside location and good roads made it an important centre for the manufacture of goods to serve the nearby and rapidly growing London.

The Chelsea Waterworks Company occupied a site on the north bank of the Thames opposite the Red House Inn. Founded in 1723, the company pumped water from the Thames to reservoirs around Westminster through a network of hollow elm trunks. As London spread westwards, the former farmland to the west became increasingly populated, and the Thames became seriously polluted with sewage and animal carcasses. In 1852 Parliament banned water from being taken from the Thames downstream of Teddington, forcing the Chelsea Waterworks Company to move upstream to Seething Wells.

Since 1771, Battersea and Chelsea had been linked by the modest wooden Battersea Bridge. As London grew following the advent of the railways, Chelsea began to become congested, and in 1842 the Commission of Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues recommended the building of an embankment at Chelsea to free new land for development, and proposed the building of a new bridge downstream of Battersea Bridge and the replacement of Battersea Bridge with a more modern structure.