After less than eighteen months of construction works costing only £84,000, on 01/06/1860 the bridge that was opened here by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway Company was the first railway bridge across the Thames in London. It resulted from an opportunistic business move by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway Company. They had not been able to extend their lines across the river because of the expense of the land on the north bank of the river. Then the water company, which had been supplying households in and about Chelsea, Pimlico and Belgravia from a reservoir fed from the river through the Grosvenor canal, were debarred from doing so by legislation and had to dispose of their land. The railway company saw the opportunity before the residential developers. Moreover, since the L.B. & S.W.R. were not the only company that wanted to run services across the river and the area of the land was substantially greater than they needed, they leased part to other operators and included a Great Western broad-gauge track. A map of about 1862 shows the line from Victoria station to the bridge as the 'London & Brighton (West End Branch)'. Because the bridge's approaches were across Grosvenor Road on the north bank and the railway company's sidings on the south bank the total span of these works was 930 ft. The original width was 31 ft. The present structures are some 180 ft wide but throughout the subsequent additions and replacements the arch and pier forms of the original engineer, John Fowler, have been replicated.

O/S Co-ords:2875.7782
Source(s):

Chelsea