Wandsworth Bridge - 1873 Bridge

1873 Bridge

The company was unable to finance the building of Ordish's design, and in 1870 a new Act of Parliament was passed giving the company permission to build a bridge 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, crossing the river with five spans. Ordish was asked to design a cheaper bridge to the new specifications but refused to change the design, so Julian Tolmé was appointed designer in his place. Tolmé designed a starkly functional lattice truss bridge of wrought iron. It cost £40,000 (about £2.6 million as of 2012) to build, and consisted of five identical spans, supported by four pairs of concrete-filled iron piers; each of the cylindrical piers was sunk 14 feet (4.3 m) into the riverbed. The bridge was due to open in early 1873, but the workmen building it went on strike, and a third Act of Parliament was necessary to give the company time to resolve the dispute and complete the project.

Wandsworth Bridge was formally opened in a small ceremony in 1873, and a celebratory buffet was provided at the nearby Spread Eagle pub. A utilitarian structure made of mismatched materials purchased for cheapness, the response to the new bridge was unenthusiastic; the Illustrated London News remarked at the time of its opening that "No attempt has been made to produce architectural effect, the structure being substantial rather than ornamental". A 1⁄₂d toll was charged on pedestrians, and carts were charged 6d.

In 1867 the formerly independent Hammersmith and City Railway was absorbed by the Metropolitan Railway and the Great Western Railway, and was operated from then on by Metropolitan Railway trains. The plan for a terminus in Fulham was abandoned, and the line instead turned west at Hammersmith to run over London and South Western Railway tracks to Richmond. Although Wandsworth Town railway station, near the southern end of the bridge, had provided direct connections to central London since 1846, the lack of rail connections opening on the north bank meant the area on the Fulham side remained undeveloped, and bridge usage was low. Tolmé's design was not sturdy enough to carry heavy vehicles, and drainage problems on the approach road to the north discouraged vehicles from using Wandsworth Bridge.