Author: Purple Brolly

Some of London’s 35 bridges are pedestrian-only and some are for trains, but the vast majority date from the 1800s.  The iconic Tower Bridge (1894) is one of the newer constructions and the only one which is capable of opening up for tall ships via its bascule mechanism, of which it is now the oldest existing example.

The oldest surviving London bridge is the stone-arched Richmond Bridge (1777), which replaced a ferry service. Like Tower Bridge it is Grade I Listed. Although it was carefully widened and repaired in 1940, it was not completely rebuilt in the 1800s like many others have been.

However, the very first recorded bridge was, naturally, London Bridge, rebuilt three times with the current version dating from 1973. The Romans built the original around 50AD. It is the bridge with the most eventful history and the extraordinary distinction of having had houses and shops actually erected on the bridge itself. They were eventually removed for fire hazard reasons after 550 years in 1761.

The newest London bridge is the Millennium Bridge (2000) for pedestrians, which had to be closed for two years only a week after opening, for repairs to cure a noticeable swaying. For this it gained the nickname ‘the Wibbly-Wobbly Bridge’!

(Top images: Tower Bridge – Stephen Craven, Richmond Bridge – Christopher Hall, Millennium Bridge – Peter Trimming, London Bridge – Philip Halling, all at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Henry Purcell‘s (1659-95) destiny was unsurprising in direction, though meteoric in impact on the musical sphere of Restoration Britain. Born in London, his father and uncle were both involved with the choirs at Westminster Abbey, so Henry naturally became a chorister, then the Abbey organist, whereupon he had the chance to compose even more music for the church.

Purcell was also appointed to the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace and composed for the court in the new style that was emerging with the return of Charles II (1630-85) ~ the demand was for jollity with a Baroque Italian flavour.  Purcell’s elegant and inventive compositions accompanied the coronations of both James II (1603-1701) and William III (1650-1702) & Mary II (1662-94). His funeral music for Mary II was used for his own funeral only months later, after he died from an unknown cause.

His output was prolific in his short life and covered the whole range of chamber music, sonatas, odes, fantasias and songs. His 1689 opera, ‘Dido and Aeneas’, led to him concentrating on music for the theatre for the last years of his life. Eventually by 1965 the whole of his works had been published, thanks to the efforts of the Purcell Society, founded in 1876.

(Top images LtoR: Westminster Abbey choir: amanderson2 at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0, Henry Purcell: picryl.com / Public domain)