The present bridge from Horseferry Road to Lambeth Road was opened by their majesties King George V and Queen Mary on 12/07/1932. It replaced the first bridge built here, opened in 1862, that had been restricted to pedestrian use for some years. The ferry that had operated here prior to that, to the financial benefit of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was, apparently, renownedly dangerous. It is reported to have placed the lives of both James I of England, VI of Scotland, and of Oliver Cromwell, separately, at severe risk when it capsized. The ferry had been the major vehicular crossing above London Bridge until Westminster Bridge opened in 1750 when the Archbishop received £3,780 compensation as it stopped operating. The bridge opened by their majesties had cost some £45,000 less than the sum authorised by parliament in 1924 but the other works cost some £310,00 more.
The earlier structure was an 828 ft long suspension bridge joining Church Street, Lambeth and Market Street, Westminster (which became Horseferry Road). It was built to the designs of Peter William Barlow and cost only £48,924. When sanctioned in 1860 the Act was the fourth to provide for this purpose but each of the previous proposals had not been able to gain adequate financial support. The problems for the backers of Barlow's bridge were that the toll income was severely reduced from that which they might have expected. One reason for this was that access for heavily laden carts on the steep approaches was difficult. The second more important reason, which was and is not unique to this London bridge, the public thought it unsafe although the expert opinion could demonstrate its adequacy by calculation. In 1879 this bridge was taken over by the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) to be made toll free, as were all the existing road bridges across the Thames within the Board's remit which ran from Putney to Plumstead. They paid £35,974 knowing that the ironwork was severely degraded by rust and requiring remedial work and that supposedly 75% of the final year's toll payments were the ha'pennies from pedestrians..

O/S Co-ords:3042.7894
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Thames Crossings. Bridges, Tunnels and Ferries