LONDON Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down;
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.
Take a key and lock her up,
Lock her up, lock her up;
Take a key and lock her up,
My fair lady.
How will we build it up,
Build it up, build it up?
How will we build it up,
My fair lady?
Build it up with wood and clay,
Wood and clay, wood and clay;
Build it up with wood and clay,
My fair lady.
Build it up with bricks and mortar,
Bricks and mortar, bricks and mortar;
Build it up with bricks and mortar,
My fair lady.
Bricks and mortar will not stay,
Will not stay, will not stay;
Bricks and mortar will not stay,
My fair lady.
Build it up with iron and steel,
Iron and steel, iron and steel;
Build it up with iron and steel,
My fair lady.
Iron and steel will bend and bow,
Bend and bow, bend and bow;
Iron and steel will bend and bow,
My fair lady.
Build it up with silver and gold,
Silver and gold, silver and gold;
Build it up with silver and gold,
My fair lady.
Silver and gold will be stolen away,
Stolen away, stolen away;
Silver and gold will be stolen away,
My fair lady.
Set a man to watch all night,
Watch all night, watch all night;
Set a man to watch all night,
My fair lady.
Suppose the man should fall asleep,
Fall asleep, fall asleep?
Suppose the man should fall asleep,
My fair lady?
Give him a pipe to smoke all night,
Smoke all night, smoke all night;
Give him a pipe to smoke all night,
My fair lady.
The Romans constructed the original London Bridge out of wood and clay in the year ad 60, paving the way for the expansion of Londinium to the south of the River Thames. However, after the Romans left 350 years later, the bridge fell into disrepair (wood and clay will wash away). It was first rebuilt in stone in the twelfth century (Build it up with bricks and mortar).
There was a long-held pre-Christian belief that burying someone in the foundations of important buildings meant that their spirit would magically protect the structure. For a building as vital to the success of London as the bridge, this could well have made sense. Variations of ‘London Bridge Is Falling Down’ exist in many other European countries, telling similar tales about their own famous bridges. In fact, when Bridge Gate in Bremen, Germany, was demolished during the nineteenth century, it is said that the skeleton of a child was discovered sealed inside the foundations. So there is every chance the fair lady who is locked into the bridge in the second verse of the rhyme is the virgin who, legend has it, was secretly buried beneath the bridge during the building work in the twelfth century. As the protective spirit, she is called upon throughout the poem as the person who will know what is best for the bridge.
By the mid 1300s, over 140 shops and houses had been constructed upon the bridge and most of them were used for international trading, especially of gold and silver, as those traders would locate their businesses close to the river in order to trade with the importing merchants docking their ships nearby. This is probably why the reference to silver and gold is used in the rhyme, suggesting that it could have been composed at any point between 1300 and 1666 (before the Great Fire), although this particular verse may well have been added to the original text as the bridge, and the goings-on upon it, developed over the years.
In 1666, London Bridge somehow managed to survive the Great Fire of London although some of the arches and foundations were badly damaged. Nevertheless it remained in use until 1758 when the houses and some of the arches were removed as traffic increased along the river. The final verse of the rhyme has clearly been added during the seventeenth century, as pipe smoking was unknown in Europe before Sir Walter Raleigh brought tobacco back from Virginia – along with the potato.
A favourite story to do with London Bridge concerns the newer Victorian model. It was famously bought at auction in 1968 for $2,460,000 by American oil baron Robert P. McCulloch, who had it dismantled and shipped via the Panama Canal to Arizona, where he had it reconstructed, brick by brick, so that it stands today as the world’s largest antique. The story goes that the American had, in fact, been fooled into thinking he was buying the more famous landmark of Tower Bridge, often called London Bridge by clueless tourists. The idea that his workmen might have been piecing together his new bridge, brick by brick, in his back garden only for it to become slowly apparent it was not the splendid London landmark depicted on tea towels and T-shirts the world over was hugely amusing to many.
But sadly that story isn’t true. After all, when the old London Bridge was put up for auction, any potential bidder would have carried out feasibility studies and structural surveys before interested parties were invited to tender. Only a complete fool could spend nearly two and a half million dollars on the wrong thing, and oil billionaires do not usually turn out to be village idiots.
But there is another theory altogether concerning this nursery rhyme. Some historians see it as the modern version of an eleventh-century Norse poem written by Ottar the Black celebrating King Ethelred’s use of London Bridge to conquer the occupying Viking forces in 1014. Ethelred arranged for his close ally, King Olaf of Norway, to sail his fleet along the Thames and attach his ships to the wooden structure of the bridge. As the tide turned, his boats sailed and the bridge was simply towed away. The two kings then stormed the Danish stronghold and London was liberated from Viking rule. But see for yourself:
London Bridge is broken down,
Gold is won, and bright renown;
Shields resounding, War horns sounding,
Hildur shouting in the din! Arrows singing,
Mailcoats ringing –Odin makes our Olaf win!
King Ethelred has found a friend,
Brave Olaf will his throne defend;
In bloody fight
Maintain his right,
Win back his land
With blood-red hand,
And Edmund his son upon his throne replace –
Edmund, the star of every royal race!
Edmund, the son of Ethelred, succeeded his father as king of England on 24 April 1016. Unfortunately, the star of every royal race died later that year, so the celebrations were somewhat premature.