So wrote a well-known local luminary to British general, statesman and friend Henry Seymour Conway in September 1774 following a month of rainfall in the area, bemoaning the challenges posed by the absence of a bridge in Richmond to cross the Thames there. Only two years earlier he had been sharing his pain with the same friend regarding shattered stained glass windows at his Strawberry Hill House home following a(nother) explosion sat the powder mills in Crane Park in Twickenham (post 58).
After much campaigning, one was finally built in 1777 by James Paine and Kenton Couse. This Grade I listed stone arch bridge is the oldest still in use that crosses the Thames, connecting the two halves of the only London Borough that spans the river, namely Richmond-upon-Thames.
Richmond Bridge today, looking south-west from the Surrey Bank towards East Twickenham
Long before the bridge was built, a ferry operated at the site, that is from Ferry Hill (now Bridge Street) across to Twickenham Meadows. There were two boats: one for passengers; the other a “horse-boat" - a much larger vessel for the conveyance of horses, small light carts and bulky goods. Carriages could not be taken on the ferry.
In 1773, Mr Windham, the lessee of the ferry at that time, offered to sell the remainder of his lease to the Crown Commissioners for £6,000 and to use the money for the erection of a bridge. A petition was made to the House of Commons for leave to bring in a Bill. The local inhabitants, though in favour of a bridge being built, were strongly opposed to Windham’s scheme. There were 3 main objections: to the Richmond site (Ferry Hill) which was inconvenient to access and had “a very sharp declivity”; to the proposed material for the structure, wood; and to the fact that the bridge would be privately owned.
This opposition led Windham to withdraw his Bill. Plans for a stone bridge, to be erected from Water Lane, were put in hand. The cost, £26,000, was raised on "tontine" shares of £100 each. Under this system each shareholder received a proportion of the bridge tolls until his death, when his shares were added to those of the remaining shareholders. The tontine could not lapse until the death of the last surviving shareholder.
Counter opposition was to follow, however: from the inhabitants of Water Lane who would have lost their homes in the necessary widening of the Lane; from the lessee of the “Feather Inn”, which would also have been demolished; and from the proprietor of Twickenham Farm, where the bridge would end on the Middlesex side of the river. His Majesty’s Commissioners decided that the bridge should, after all, be built from Ferry Hill, and the Richmond Vestry had no alternative but to follow their decision.
Horace Walpole, (who seems to pop up everywhere), wrote to Henry Seymour Conway on June 23rd 1774: “…Pray, for the future remain home and build bridges: I wish you were here to expedite ours to Richmond, which they tell me will not be passable these two years. I have done looking so forward!”
The foundation stone of Richmond Bridge was laid two months later on August 23rd 1774 by the Hon. Henry Hobart. The principal architect was James Paine (around 1716 to 1789), who was also responsible for the bridge at Kew (constructed 1783 to 1789) which preceded the present one (built in 1903).
The bridge was badly needed. Walpole wrote to Conway on September 27th 1774: "It has rained this whole month, and we have got another inundation. The Thames is as broad as your Danube, and all my meadows are under water. Lady Browne and I, coming last Sunday night from Lady Blandford’s, were in a piteous plight. The ferry-boat (from Richmond to Twickenham) was turned round by the current, and carried to Isleworth. Then we ran against the piers of our new bridge, and the horses were frightened."
The bridge was completed in 1777, and the tontine shareholders could start to recoup on their investment. The London Magazine (1779) described it as: “a simple, yet elegant structure, and, from its happy situation… one of the most beautiful ornaments of the river and the country adjacent. It is built with Portland stone from the design of Mr Payne (sic) of London, a celebrated architect, and the masonry was executed by Mr Carr of Richmond…”
In 1859 the last surviving tontine shareholder died, and the tolls were thus discontinued.
The bridge was widened and slightly flattened in 1937–40, but otherwise its original appearance was preserved. It was the eighth Thames bridge to be built in what is now Greater London, and as mentioned earlier, today it is the oldest surviving Thames bridge in London.
Early painting showing the sharper original “hump” before it was softened in the late 1930s
Late 1800s, when the Penny Farthing was in vogue, and our fashionable cyclist is heading towards us in East Twickenham, on the Middlesex bank
Early 1900s, looking towards Richmond and the Surrey bank from East Twickenham
Looks earlier to me, but the photograph suggests softening of the
aforementioned “hump” has taken place, so guessing it could be early 1940s
Red arrow: Richmond Bridge
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