One of the best views along the Thames
A charming pop song of the 1960s, »Waterloo Sunset« by The Kinks, celebrates the beauty of the Thames. Two lovers meet at Waterloo Station and cross the bridge: »As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset, I am in paradise«. In 1802, not far away on Westminster Bridge, William Wordsworth wrote that »Earth has not anything to show more fair«. The poet did not know that Waterloo Bridge would soon be built on an even more advantageous site, the mid-point of a bend in the river, which means that it gives passers-by a view of both Westminster to the south-west and the City of London to the east.
This first Waterloo Bridge, whose nine arches spanned the Thames from 1817, inspired painters and writers. It was a motif for John Constable and Claude Monet. A stage play named »Waterloo Bridge«, first performed in 1930 and filmed no less than three times, told the story of a soldier and a dancer who met on the bridge during a bombing raid in the First World War.
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Address Waterloo Bridge | Public Transport Temple (Circle, District Line) | Tip You also get a wonderful view from the two pedestrian river crossings on either side of the Hungerford Railway Bridge, to the south of Waterloo Bridge.
The second bridge, which still stands, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and completed in 1942. The architect of the famous telephone box and two striking buildings on the banks of the Thames, the power stations in Bankside (now the Tate Modern) and Battersea, failed to create a beautiful bridge, but the panorama on both sides makes up for this. Close by are Somerset House (to the left on the north bank, when looking towards the City) and the National Theatre (on the south bank opposite). Further east St Paul’s Cathedral, The Monument and St Bride’s Church rise with the bank towers of the financial district beyond them and to the right. From the other side of the bridge, facing Westminster, the eyes rove past the cultural institutions of the Southbank Centre towards the London Eye and right to the unmistakable silhouette of Parliament. To stand on this bridge, beneath a wide sky and above a broad river, is to feel that London is truly a great city.
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