Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges - History

History

The first Hungerford Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opened in 1845 as a suspension footbridge. It was named after the then Hungerford Market, because it went from the South Bank to Hungerford Market on the north side of the Thames.

In 1859 the original bridge was bought by the railway company extending the South Eastern Railway into the newly opened Charing Cross railway station. The railway company replaced the suspension bridge with a structure designed by Sir John Hawkshaw, comprising nine spans made of wrought iron lattice girders, which opened in 1864. The chains from the old bridge were re-used in Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge. The original brick pile buttresses of Brunel's footbridge are still in use, though the one on the Charing Cross side is now much closer to the river bank than it was originally, due to the building of the Victoria Embankment, completed in 1870. The buttress on the South Bank side still has the entrances and steps from the original steamer pier Brunel built on to the footbridge.

Walkways were added on each side, with the upstream one later being removed when the railway was widened. In 1951 another walkway was temporarily added when an Army Bailey bridge was constructed for the Festival of Britain. In 1980 a temporary walkway was erected on the upstream side whilst the downstream railway bridge and walkway were refurbished. It is one of only three bridges in London to combine pedestrian and rail use; the others being the Fulham Railway Bridge and Barnes Railway Bridge.

The footbridge gained a reputation for being narrow, dilapidated and dangerous - it was the scene of a murder in 1999. In the mid-1990s a decision was made to replace the footbridge with new structures on either side of the existing railway bridge, and a competition was held in 1996 for a new design. The concept design was won by architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and engineers WSP Group. Detailed design of the two bridges was carried out by consulting engineers Gifford. The two new 4-metre (13 ft) wide footbridges were completed in 2002. They were named the Golden Jubilee Bridges, in honour of the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession, although in practice they are still referred to as the "Hungerford Footbridges".

Further justification for new footbridge structures both upstream and downstream of the railway bridge was that Sir John Hawkshaw's railway bridge's brittle wrought iron support pillars were vulnerable to impact from riverboats. Especially following the Marchioness disaster it was felt these should be clad in concrete at water level but the bridge's owners, Railtrack, could not afford the work. The Golden Jubilee Bridges achieved this protection at no cost to Railtrack.