London Bridge Towers (The Gatehouse Record)

London Bridge Towers

In the civil parish of City Of London.
In the historic county of City of London.
Modern Authority of City and County of the City of London.
1974 county of Greater London.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ327804
Latitude 51.50704° Longitude -0.08768°

London Bridge Towers has been described as a certain Urban Defence.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Stow describes two towers, one at each end of London Bridge. The first was north of the draw bridge and was built in 1426 and was taken down, because of decay, in 1577. The heads of traitors there displayed being removed and redisplayed on the southern tower. The second tower, at the southern, Southwark, end of the bridge collapsed in Jan 1347 and it's replacement was burnt by Kent sailors in 1471, in a revolt led by 'Bastard' Falconbridge, although it continued in use after this. A significant part of the defences of London and important symbolic buildings.

Two Gothic towers—not uniform in plan, however—defended the southern end of the original bridge, and also of the second. (Walford)

The first stone bridge was built in 1176 by Peter de Colechurch. It had 19 arches and a gatehouse with drawbridge at the Southwark end. From 1305, the heads of traitors were displayed on the gatehouse portico. (PastScape)

Links to mapping and other online resources

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PastScape

County HER

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Sources of information, references and further reading

English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 404697.
County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 041409/00/00.

Books
- Goodall, John, 2011, The English Castle 1066-1650 (Yale University Press) p. 173,
  Weinreb, Ben and Hibbert, Christopher (eds), 1983 (rev edn 1993), The London Encyclopeadia (Macmillian) p. 468-9
  Walford, Edward, 1878, Old and New London Vol. 6 p. 8- online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Pearson, M.B., 1922, 'Old London Bridge' Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society Vol. 4 p. 390-402 download copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Stype, John, 1720, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster Vol. 1 p. 59 online copy
  Kingsford, C.L. (ed), 1908, A Survey of London, by John Stow: Reprinted from the text of 1603 Vol. 1 p. 5-10 online copy
  Anthony van den Wyngaerde, c. 1543, Panorama of London online copy
  Agas, c. 1558, map of London

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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This record last updated on Friday, May 3, 2013

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