51°30′22″N0°07′12″W / 51.50611°N 0.12000°W /51.50611; -0.12000
Hungerford Bridge | |
|---|---|
 Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges, seen from the north | |
| Coordinates | 51°30′22″N0°07′12″W / 51.5061°N 0.12°W /51.5061; -0.12 |
| Carries | South Eastern Main Line (Hungerford Bridge) Pedestrians (Golden Jubilee Bridges) |
| Crosses | River Thames |
| Locale | London |
| Maintained by | Network Rail |
| Preceded by | Westminster Bridge |
| Followed by | Waterloo Bridge |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Steeltruss (Hungerford Bridge)Cable-stayed bridge (Golden Jubilee Bridges) |
| History | |
| Opened | 1864 (Hungerford Bridge) 2002 (Golden Jubilee Bridges) |
| Location | |
 | |
TheHungerford Bridge crosses theRiver Thames in London, and lies betweenWaterloo Bridge andWestminster Bridge. Owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd (who use its official name ofCharing Cross Bridge) it is a steeltruss railway bridge flanked by two more recent, cable-stayed, pedestrian bridges that share the railway bridge's foundation piers, and which are named theGolden Jubilee Bridges.[1][2][3]
The north end of the bridge isCharing Cross railway station, and is nearEmbankment Pier and theVictoria Embankment. The south end is nearWaterloo station,County Hall, theRoyal Festival Hall, and theLondon Eye. Each pedestrian bridge has steps andlift access.
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The first Hungerford Bridge, designed byIsambard Kingdom Brunel, opened in 1845 as asuspension footbridge. It was named after the thenHungerford Market, because it went from the South Bank, specifically a northern point of Lambeth, soon close toLondon Waterloo station to that place on the north side of the Thames, specifically to the market (later Charing Cross Station) about 200 yards or metres east ofTrafalgar Square partly in the parish ofSaint Martin in the Fields, Westminster, the spire of which can be seen from the bridge.[1][4][5][6]
In 1859 the original bridge was bought by the railway company extending theSouth Eastern Railway into the newly openedCharing Cross railway station. The railway company replaced the suspension bridge with a structure designed by SirJohn Hawkshaw, comprising nine spans made ofwrought iron lattice girders, which opened in 1864.[5][6][7] The chains from the old bridge were re-used inBristol'sClifton 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 theVictoria 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.[5]
To compensate for the removal of the footbridge, walkways were added on each side, with the western one later being removed when the railway was widened. Another walkway was temporarily added in 1951 when an ArmyBailey bridge was constructed for theFestival of Britain. In 1980 a temporary walkway was erected on the western side while the eastern railway bridge and walkway were refurbished. It is one of three bridges in London to carry pedestrians and rolling stock; the others beingFulham Railway Bridge andBarnes Bridge.[1][4][6]
The footbridge gained a reputation for being narrow, dilapidated and dangerous; it was the scene of a murder in June 1999.[8] 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.
Further justification for new footbridge structures on the west flank and east flank was that the brittlewrought iron support pillars of Sir John Hawkshaw's railway bridge were vulnerable to impact from riverboats.[9] It was felt, especially following theMarchioness disaster, that 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.
In January 2025, a three-year project to refurbish Hungerford Bridge began. All the original metalwork will be retained and refurbished; engineers will test the truss pins – which join the supports together – and replace the pin end caps on the girders.[10]
The concept design for the new footbridges was won by architectsLifschutz Davidson Sandilands and engineersWSP Group.[6][9] Detailed design of the two bridges was carried out by consulting engineersGifford, now Ramboll UK. The steelwork for the new footbridges was fabricated byButterley Engineering Ltd. of Ripley, Derbyshire.[11]
Their construction was complicated by the need to keep the railway bridge operating without interruptions, theBakerloo line tunnels passing only a few feet under the river bed, and the potential danger of unexplodedWorld War II bombs in the Thames mud.[6][9] Despite extensive surveys of the riverbed,London Underground was unwilling to accept these risks and preliminary works were stopped in 2000.[6] The design was modified so that the support structure on the north side, which would have been within 15 m (49 ft) of the tube lines, was moved out of the river bed and onto Victoria Embankment. Excavation near the tube lines was carried out when the tube was closed, and foundations were hand-dug for additional security.
The two new 4-metre (13 ft) wide footbridges were completed in 2002. They were named the Golden Jubilee Bridges, in honour of theGolden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, although in practice they are often still referred to as the "Hungerford Footbridges".
The 300 m (980 ft) long decks were raised using an innovative method calledincremental launching, in which each 50 m (160 ft) long section was pulled across the river using a 250 m (820 ft) long steel truss weighing 300tonnes. This process was repeated five times until each deck spanned the river, supported by six temporary piers made of steel and concrete. The seven 25-tonnepylons were then raised over the subsequent two weeks. Once the pylons had been installed, the decks were jacked up to enable their connection with the cable stays suspended from the pylons. The concrete deck was then lowered into its final position and the temporary piers and supports were dismantled.[9]
The design of the bridges is complex. Each of the two decks is supported by inclined outward-leaning pylons. The decks are suspended from fans of slender steel rods called deck stays—there are 180 on each deck, made up of over 4 km (2.5 mi) of cable—and are held in position by other rods called backstays. Because the pylons lean the back stays are under tension. The deck is secured in place by steel collars fitted around (although not supported by) the pillars of the railway bridge; the collars are themselves attached to the bridge's foundations by tie-down rods. The entire structure is thus held in place by exploiting the tensions between the pylons and the various stay rods and struts.[9]
The new bridges won the Specialist category in theRoyal Fine Art Commission Building of the Year Award in 2003. It gained a Structural Achievement Award commendation in the 2004Institution of Structural Engineers awards, and has won awards from theCivic Trust and for its lighting design.[12]
In 2014, the planning application for the now cancelledGarden Bridge, revealed in its assessment of pedestrian movement across the Thames that the footbridges are the busiest in London, with an estimated footfall of 8.5 million each year.[13]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)High level annual pedestrian demand data was obtained for other local bridges across the River Thames. The data consisted of a mixture of existing TfL surveys and surveys commissioned specifically for the Garden Bridge.
