On Wednesday the 20th February My son and I head off up to London for a walk to see The Tower Bridge Experience and see where we end up afterwards. So after a bit of train and tube travel ,we arrive at North Greenwich Station so we could take a Thames Clipper the rest of the way.
We walk from North Greenwich Station passing The Emirates Airline.
The Emirates Air Line is a cable car link across the River Thames in London, England, built by Doppelmayr with sponsorship from the airline Emirates. The service opened on 28 June 2012 and is operated by Transport for London. In addition to transport across the river, the service advertises "a unique view of London".
So we made our way down to the pier and board a Thames Clipper board to get the rest of the way to Tower Bridge.
MBNA Thames Clippers operate under licence from Transport for London. The river boat service is now better integrated into the tube and bus ticketing network. From November 2009, the MBNA Thames Clippers services started to accept Oyster pay as you go on all of its services, which also provides a discount on single and return fares. Contactless payment is also accepted.
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| Passing Canary Wharf |
We are now approaching Tower Bridge after a longish boat journey.
We exit the boat and walk past The Tower Of London over to Tower Bridge. We pay £14 for my son and I to go into The Tower Bridge Exhibition.
We go up to level 4 in a busy cramped lift to exit out to walk over The Walkway with views to the West.
The Glass Floor measures 11 metres long and 1.8 metres wide and comprise of panels weighing 530 kilograms each – it is no wonder the installation took a 20-strong team to construct it!
Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London built between 1886 and 1894. The bridge crosses the River Thames close to the Tower of London and has become an iconic symbol of London.
In the second half of the 19th century, an advertisement in the East End of London led to a hiring for a new river crossing downstream of London Bridge. A traditional fixed bridge at street level could not be built because it would cut off access by sailing ships to the port facilities in the Pool of London, between London Bridge and the Tower of London.
A Special Bridge or Subway Committee was formed in 1877, chaired by Sir Albert Joseph Altman, to find a solution to the river crossing problem. Over 50 designs were submitted, including one from civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Bazalgette's design was rejected because of a lack of sufficient headroom, and design was not approved until 1884, when it was decided to build a bascule bridge. Sir John Wolfe Barry was appointed engineer with Sir Horace Jones as architect (who was also one of the judges). An Act of Parliament was passed in 1885 authorising the bridge's construction. It specified the opening span must give a clear width of 200 feet (61 m) and a headroom of 135 feet (41 m). Construction had to be in a Gothic style.
Barry designed a bascule bridge with two bridge towers built on piers. The central span was split into two equal bascules or leaves, which could be raised to allow river traffic to pass. The two side-spans were suspension bridges, with the suspension rods anchored both at the abutments and through rods contained within the bridge's upper walkways.
Construction started in 1886 and took eight years with five major contractors – Sir John Jackson (foundations), Baron Armstrong (hydraulics), William Webster, Sir H.H. Bartlett, and Sir William Arrol & Co. – and employed 432 construction workers. E W Crutwell was the resident engineer for the construction.
The bridge was officially opened on 30 June 1894 by the then Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), and his wife, The Princess of Wales (Alexandra of Denmark).
The high-level open air walkways between the towers gained an unpleasant reputation as a haunt for prostitutes and pickpockets; as they were only accessible by stairs they were seldom used by regular pedestrians, and were closed in 1910. The walkway reopened in 1982.
When Tower Bridge was first built, it raised between 20-30 times a day.
The bridge is 800 feet (240 m) in length with two towers each 213 feet (65 m) high, built on piers. The central span of 200 feet (61 m) between the towers is split into two equal bascules or leaves, which can be raised to an angle of 86 degrees to allow river traffic to pass. The bascules, weighing over 1,000 tons each, are counterbalanced to minimise the force required and allow raising in five minutes.
We leave the walkway and into a room with old videos of the bridge.
We then walk across the walkway with views to the East.
At the end of the walkway we enter the tower and look up to views of what it would like like when men were building the tower.
Now we waited for the lift down and we got into another cramped lift and down to ground level where we left the bridge and followed the blue line outside to the engine room.
The Engine Rooms were once the beating heart of Tower Bridge.
Over 80 people were needed to maintain the engines and raise the Bridge.
In 1974, the original operating mechanism was largely replaced by a new electro-hydraulic drive system, designed by BHA Cromwell House, with the original final pinions driven by modern hydraulic motors and. In 1982, the Tower Bridge Exhibition opened, housed in the bridge's twin towers, the long-closed high-level walkways and the Victorian engine rooms. The latter still house the original steam engines and some of the original hydraulic machinery.
A computer system was installed in 2000 to control the raising and lowering of the bascules remotely. It proved unreliable, resulting in the bridge being stuck in the open or closed positions on several occasions during 2005 until its sensors were replaced.
The original raising mechanism was powered by pressurised water stored in several hydraulic accumulators. The system was designed and installed by Hamilton Owen Rendel while working for Sir W. G. Armstrong Mitchell & Company of Newcastle upon Tyne. Water, at a pressure of 750 psi (5.2 MPa), was pumped into the accumulators by two 360 hp (270 kW) horizontal twin-tandem compound stationary steam engines, fitted with Meyer expansion slide valves. Each engine drove a force pump from its piston tail rod. The accumulators each comprise a 20-inch (51 cm) ram on which sits a very heavy weight to maintain the desired pressure.
In 1974, the original operating mechanism was largely replaced by a new electro-hydraulic drive system, designed by BHA Cromwell House. The only components of the original system still in use are the final pinions, which engage with the racks fitted to the bascules. These are driven by modern hydraulic motors and gearing, using oil rather than water as the hydraulic fluid. Some of the original hydraulic machinery has been retained, although it is no longer in use. It is open to the public and forms the basis for the bridge's museum, which resides in the old engine rooms on the south side of the bridge. The museum includes the steam engines, two of the accumulators and one of the hydraulic engines that moved the bascules, along with other related artefacts.
We left the bridge and walk along the South Bank Passing City Hall.
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| View across the river to The Tower of London. |
After a walk along the river we walk to Hays Galleria.
Hay's Galleria is a mixed use building in the London Borough of Southwark situated on the south bank of the River Thames featuring offices, restaurants, shops, and flats. Originally a warehouse and associated wharf for the port of London, it was redeveloped in the 1980s. It is a Grade II listed structure.
The property’s history dates back to the 1600s and was originally known as Hay’s Wharf, after the original owner of a brewery at the location. Located on the Thames, over the centuries it has been a center of trade and shipping until heavy damage from WWI bombing raids nearly destroyed it. By the 1960s it had fallen into disrepair. In the 1980s the property was restored and converted, and enclosed under a glass roof with Kemp’s sculpture installed as a tribute to its working class past.
A rivet-covered bronze sculpture with the face of a man and the body of an industrial-age ship, The Navigators is actually an enormous kinetic machine.
The 60-foot sculpture by artist David Kemp was installed in 1987 during the renovation of Hay’s Galleria, which saw the conversion of the old wharf into a shopping center. When activated, its oars move through the water at its sides.
Kemp is a British artist best known for his large assemblage sculptures. He lives on the Atlantic coast of West Cornwall where he scavenges for interesting bits to make his art from.
About his art he says: “I make things out of things, big things, little things, old things and new things. I like to recycle things, and find new uses for things that have been thrown away. Some things say something about their surroundings, and other things become something else.”
The Navigators was one of Kemp’s first major public installations. Since then, he has created a number of large works including the “Old Transformers,” a pair of huge outdoor sculptures near Consett, County Durham.
Now we wander up to Southwark Cathedral.
It has been a place of Christian worship for more than 1,000 years, but a cathedral only since the creation of the diocese of Southwark in 1905.
Between 1106 and 1538 it was the church of an Augustinian priory, Southwark Priory, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, it became a parish church, with the new dedication of St Saviour's. The church was in the diocese of Winchester until 1877, when the parish of St Saviour's, along with other South London parishes, was transferred to the diocese of Rochester. The present building retains the basic form of the Gothic structure built between 1220 and 1420, although the nave is a late 19th-century reconstruction.
We leave the Cathedral and out into the busy bustling Borough Market. The food being there hit your nose the minute you walk in, food from all around the world is here!
It is one of the largest and oldest food markets in London, with a market on the site dating back to at least the 12th century. The present buildings were built in the 1850s, and today the market mainly sells speciality foods to the general public.
The retail market operates on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The wholesale market operates on all weekday mornings from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m.
Three attackers from the 2017 London Bridge attack ran to the area, where they stabbed and killed people with knives before they were shot dead by armed police.The market was then closed for 11 days following the attack.
The present buildings were designed in 1851, with additions in the 1860s and an entrance designed in the Art Deco style added on Southwark Street in 1932.
My son tried a Chicken Empanadas, traditional Argentinean baked empanadas filled with chicken, onions, paprika, hot pepper powder, cumin, oregano, and olives.
I meanwhile tried my first ever oyster from Richard Hawes (a Mersea Island rock oyster) with lemon juice, I almost didn't when I saw them open one up, but I thought you never know unless you try. Well it wasn't as bad as I thought, would I have them again I don't know. I was told to chew it a couple of times and not to swallow it whole as this is a misconception.
The Rock Oyster is available all year round, the shells are long deep and flared and the oyster is meaty, firm and creamy with a fresh sweet taste. Our Oysters mature in the plankton rich waters of the Pyefleet Creek to take on a defined flavour full of zinc and other minerals.
We left the market and walked to London Bridge station for the train home.