Battersea Railway Bridge
The Battersea Railway Bridge - properly called the Cremorne Bridge, after the pleasure grounds in Chelsea and originally commonly referred to as the Battersea New Bridge
The bridge was designed by William Baker, chief engineer of the London and North Western Railway, and T. H. Bertram of the Great Western Railway. The contractors were Brassey and Ogilvie. It was opened in March 1863, at a cost of £87,000. It carries two sets of railway lines.
Main spans: 140 ft (42.7 m), supported on masonry piers. Total length 75 ft (230.1 m).
There is a three-arch brick viaduct on the north side of the bridge, with one arch having been opened to provide a pedestrian route under the railway, as part of the Thames Path. On the south side there are four arches, two of which are used as storage for the residents of a houseboat community located immediately downstream of the bridge, whilst the remaining two allow traffic on the B305 to pass under the rail line.
The appearance of the arches, with I-beam ribs and lattice-work spandrels and balustrades, is very much in line with an appreciable number of cast iron rail and road bridges from earlier decades. However in this case the arches were constructed of wrought iron, not cast iron. Efforts were made disguise the fact that the outer spandrels are riveted wrought iron and not castings, by countersinking the outer rivet heads. The webs of the arch ribs are assembled from relatively short wrought iron sections, and these also have countersunk rivets at the abutting ends. In addition, the outer face of the outermost arch ribs is devoid of web bracing, to give a smooth appearance. In fact the outermost arch ribs are less stiff than the inner ribs, having single plate thickness flanges.
This is an early surviving example of a large railway bridge with wrought iron arches. Wrought iron arch road and foot bridges had been constructed long before. The nearby Grosvenor Bridge was a slightly earlier example of a large railway bridge with wrought iron arches, but this no longer survives in its original form.
There are six ribs to each span, in three pairs, with the inner ribs cross-braced under either track.
The arches were strengthened and refurbished in 1969, and again in 1992. Steel sections were added, their presence being indicated by bolted connections visible in the photographs. It appears that the alterations were extensive behind the exposed arches and spandrels.
See HistoricBridge.org website for more information, illustrations, and map.
1862 '.... a work well worthy of notice. It is, in our opinion, decidedly the handsomest of the numerous structures of every kind by which the the river is spanned, and is really a great ornament to the neighbourhood. It is built for the most part of the best rolled plates of wrought iron, partly the famous Butterley Works at Darlington [?] and partly from the scarcely less celebrated works of Skelton and Company [Shelton Bar Iron Co?]. The bridge itself has been constructed by Mr. Charles Langley [Charles Lungley], of Deptford. .... The roadway is floored throughout with Mallett's patent buckled plates, and the abutments and piers are all of the best Yorkshire stone, the latter having been built by means of water-tight coffer dams on the solid clay, at a depth feet of 30 feet below Trinity high-water mark.' [1]. However, the information about the ironwork makers is questionable. See 1895 information below.
Additional information from Engineering, 1895:-
Most of the ironwork was supplied by Calvert of York. Note: This is at odds with other information from another source. However G. J. Calvert and Co went into liquidation early in 1862, so it is possible that the work was completed by others. In January 1862 it was reported that 'the contract for this bridge amounted to £40,000, and its erection was commenced in May last. The bulk of this contract is finished, and the ironwork only remains to be fixed. The number of men engaged upon it amounts to about 400, and they will continue to be employed for some time to come.'[2]
'It is somewhat remarkable for the rapidity with which it was completed, only 15 months having been occupied by the contractors after the first stone was laid.' William Lawford, M. Inst. C.E., erected the bridge for the contractors, and supplied the information for the article.
Each of the spans is crossed by six wrought-iron girders arranged in pairs, the webs of each pair being placed 2 ft. 6 in. apart. The inner curved ribs are 39 in. deep at the springing and 24 in. deep at the crown; they are made with vertical webplates 3/8 in. thick, with plate and angle iron flanges. The horizontal member of the girder is of similar construction, parallel, and 24 in. deep ; it dies into the arched rib near the centre, and makes the total depth of each girder at that point 48 in. It may be mentioned that the depth of the outer ribs on each side of the bridge is 30 in. at the centre and 39 in. at the springing ; on the outer face all rivets, except those securing the angle-irons, are countersunk, and there are no cover plates introduced, so that the exposed surface is quite smooth and unbroken, presenting a very excellent effect and finish. The spandril filling consists in each case of a lattice composed of H-bars or double T-irons. As already said, the main girders are secured together in pairs ; this is done by a series of light lattice girders, seven in each half-span, set at equal distances apart to within 10 ft. of the crown ; the several pairs of arched ribs are connected by a system of open braced frames that commence near the haunches of the arch, and extended to the centre. The horizontal girders of the main ribs are connected by the cross-bearers that carry the roadway ; these are placed at intervals of 4 ft., and consist of plate webs 10 in. deep, with top and bottom angle-irons. On these bearers the bottom flange of the buckle-plates that constitute the floor, are placed. A very complete system of diagonal bracing is introduced throughout the various spans. Cast-iron bearing plates with care fully planed surfaces are attached to the ends of each arched rib, and these rest in cast-iron shoes, which in turn are recessed into the masonry of the pier. Contraction and expansion are provided for as follows : “ Cast-iron standards are bolted to the stonework of the piers and united by a cast-iron frame, secured by bolts and nuts. These standards have recesses to receive the ends of the horizontal girders and secure them in position, and at the same time allow for horizontal motion. A bed and bearing plate, planed perfectly parallel, are fixed under the ends of the horizontal girders, upon which they slide.”