old London bridge before the great fire 17th centuary William Rufus national monastic guild
Following the 1136 destruction, some rebuilding was carried out during the reign of Stephen, presumably along the same lines as those instituted by William Rufus. On Henry II's accession, there was an attempt to regularise its maintenance by the institution of a national monastic guild to support this work—effectively by sale of indulgences. There is evidence that there were also unlicensed local guilds in London with the same purpose. In 1163, Peter de Colechurch was appointed as the "Warden of the Brethren of the Bridge", and this seems to have combined all of the preceding ad hoc arrangements. In 1173, Peter soon proposed to replace the timber bridge with a stone one, almost certainly required by the popularity of the Thomas Becket cult and the associated pilgrimage from the bridge to Canterbury. Construction began under de Colechurch's direction in 1176. A chapel was built near the centre of the bridge (dedicated to the recently martyred and canonised Becket who, appropriately, had been born in the parish of St Mary Colechurch). St. Thomas Chapel was grander than hi-town parish churches; it even had a river-level entrance for fishermen and those who taxied passengers across the river. The new bridge took 33 years to complete and was not finished until 1209, during the reign of King John. John licensed the building of houses on the bridge, as a direct means of deriving revenue for its maintenance, and it was soon colonised by shops. The medieval bridge had 19 small arches and a drawbridge with a defensive gatehouse at the southern end. Contemporary pictures show it crowded with buildings of up to seven stories in height. The narrowness of the arches meant that it acted as a partial barrage over the Thames, restricting water flow and thereby making the river more susceptible to freezing over in winter because of the slower currents. The current was further obstructed by the addition of waterwheels (designed by Peter Morice) under the two north arches to drive w
Size: 4389px × 4590px
Photo credit: © 19th era / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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