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Laahndon Bridge. A subject of great modern confusion. Don’t go looking for it – it ain’t there! Not anymore. You’re probably thinking of Tower Bridge – the one with the drawbridge that (hopefully) opens up to let ships pass... but that wasn’t built until 1894... (prefer to watch the Youtube video? Click here!)
You might also be thinking of Westminster Bridge – the one that runs up towards Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and has been the site of some several dramas – everything from The Prisoner to Sherlock Holmes to Spectre (and, tragically, in real life too: the 2017 Westminster attack). But Westminster Bridge wasn’t built until 1750.
Nor should we be fooled by the current rather ugly imposter – for this new ‘London Bridge’ (let’s go Starkers and call it the Mark III) was opened in 1973 – though, to its credit, it is in roughly the right place. But cross it southwards, turn right, and stroll along the Jubilee Walkway, Southwark to see a plaque set into the river wall with an excellent diagram of the seven phases of the Bridge.
The stone Bridge that appears in Plague!, which we shall call ‘Old London Bridge’ (or the Mark I) for clarity, was finished in 1209, and was unlike anything London has seen before or since, festooned as it was in buildings up to six storeys vertical. Think of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, multiply by half a dozen, and you’re close. THIS Bridge (capital letter, please) more or less survived (via various collapses and fires) right up to 1831, by which time the houses had long been cleared. If ever I were to run for election as Mayor of London, it would be entirely on the platform of restoring London Bridge to its Mark 1 glory: just imagine the tourism $$$!
Old London Bridge was finally replaced by a more modern design (the Mark II) built alongside it before the Old Mark I was demolished. This New London Bridge survived until 1968 when, incredibly, it was bought by Missouran entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch for 2 and a half million dollars, and shipped out to the States in pieces. The story (apocryphal but amusing) goes that, upon arrival, McCulloch was furious to discover he had gotten the wrong bridge, and had not managed to snag the rather more iconic Tower Bridge. Furious or not, he reconstructed the new London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
McCulloch had the last laugh, however, as the bridge has become the 2nd biggest tourist attraction in the state, right after the Grand Canyon. Makes you wonder what he could have achieved if he had gone the whole hoedown and stuck it across the Grand Canyon instead, eh?
This is one of the footnotes from the hilarious new historical fantasy novel Plague! Shadow of the Rat King about the undertaker who started the Great Plague of London 1665 to save his dying business!
Read Plague! Shadow of the Rat King now!