Waterloo Bridge

This is a Magic Lantern slide titled Westminster Bridge, over 122 years after its manufacture I am able to correct this mistake and say that this is not Westminster Bridge, it is Waterloo Bridge looking towards the south bank. It shows two Police Constables, one is walking towards the camera after dealing with some sort of incident with his colleague who is apparently still dealing with it whatever it was. The Constable is wearing the 1864 pattern tunic with eight buttons which was replaced in 1897 with the five button and two breast pocket tunic, so the photograph was taken before 1897. He is probably from Bow Street Police Station which was then part of “E” Division, the other officer may be from “L” Division south of the river based at Kennington Police Station. The famous Shot Tower on the south bank can be seen top centre, it was built in 1826 and was the centre piece of the 1951 Festival of Britain, in the early 1960s it was demolished to make way for the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The buildings right middle belong to the Barclay Perkins Lion Brewery. The bridge was designed by John Rennie and opened on the 18th June 1817 by the Prince Regent accompanied by the Duke of Wellington, it was a private venture by the Strand Bridge Company who sponsored three enabling Acts of Parliament the last of which specified that the Bridge should be named the Waterloo Bridge in remembrance of the Duke’s great Victory over Napoleon two years earlier. The company had wanted to name the bridge, the Strand Bridge. The bridge was a toll bridge until 1877 when it was taken over by the Metropolitan Board of Works under the provisions of the Metropolitan Toll Bridges Act, 1877. I like the cameo of the conductor of the single deck bus perched precariously on the small ledge on the back of the bus.

Done