St. Katherine's Dock
Originally this was the site of St. Katherine's Hospital built in 1148. It was eventually converted into a school and remained so until 1825. Due to London's continually expanding trade it was then converted into a dock built by Thomas Telford and opened in 1828. 11,000 people were forcibly removed from their homes in order for the dock to be built, most without any form of compensation.
The dock was severely damaged during WWII and was subsequently redeveloped during the 1980'2 with apartments and a marina. |
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Tower Bridge
By the mid 19th century it was apparent that London Bridge was too far down stream to enable dock workers from the east end of London to get to work easily and so it was decided to build a new bridge across the Thames downstream of London Bridge. Over 50 design proposals were submitted and the one by Horace Jones was chosen in 1884. It required 11,000 tons of steel clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone to build the bridge and it opened in 1892. It was the largest Bascule bridge ever built and originally the bridge was steam powered. Today it is powered by hydraulics. |
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Tower of London
The building was begun by William the Conqueror in 1078 and at the time it was the tallest building in London. It is now the oldest complete building in London. The building has 3 square and 1 round tower. There is only 1 staircase, in the round tower, which spirals upwards in a clockwise direction. This is so that a guard following a prisoner would have an advantage if carrying his sword in his right hand. Edward I built the Traitors gate in 1280. Those who went through it never to return included:-
Thomas Cromwell
Anne Boleyn
Catherine Howard
Lady Jane Grey and
Duke of Monmouth following an unsuccessful attempt to depose his uncle James II in 1685 |
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HMS Belfast
HMS Belfast was launched on St. Patrick's day 17th March 1938 and saw extensive service in WWII. The ship entered the reserve in 1963 and following a long fight to save it from being scrapped it was moored at its present site in 1971 and was opened to the public in October 1971. It is now operated by the Imperial Was Museum. |
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London Bridge
This was the first bridge across the river in London. There was a pontoon bridge here in AD50 built by the Romans. By the end of the 18th century the current bridge was over 600 years old and was replaced by one with 5 stone arches designed by John Rennie. This bridge was so well used that by 1924 the east side had sunk 3-4 inches lower than the west and was sinking at the rate of 1 inch every 8 years.
Rennies bridge was sold in 1968 to Robert McCullock of McCullock Oil for $2.5m. He rebuilt the bridge at Lake Havasu City, Arizona in 1971.
The current bridge was designed by Mott, Hay, and Anderson and opened by the Queen 17th March 1973. |
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Tate Modern
This is the former Bankside Power Station, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott who also designed Battersea Power Station. Bankside was shut down in 1981 and reopened as Tate Modern in 2000. |
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Millennium Bridge
It was designed by Arup, Foster and Partners and opened 10th June 2000. It closed again 12th June 200 because of excessive swaying when people walked across it due to a phenomenon called Synchronous Lateral Excitation. Put simply this means that people tend to sway their bodies in line with the movement of the bridge thus providing positive feedback which then exacerbates the problem. The problem was cured by fixing 37 horizontal and 52 vertical dampers to the bridge and it reopened to the public in February 2002.
It was not the first bridge across the Thames with such a problem - we will come to the other one further up stream!
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