Blackfriars Bridge and St. Paul's, London

The competition to design London’s third masonry bridge was won in 1760 by 25 year old Robert Mylne. Completed in 1769, the Bridge was officially named after William Pitt but everyone called it Blackfriars Bridge.

Initially it charged highly unpopular tolls and in 1780 the toll gates were broken down by the Gordon rioters, but the bridge was not made free until 1785. The demolition of old London Bridge increased the flow of the river under Blackfriars Bridge and weakened it, and it too had eventually to be replaced. The present iron and granite Blackfriars Bridge was built between 1860 and 1869.

Marlow depicts Blackfriars Bridge and the City from Lambeth, with the City’s wharves seen through its Portland Stone arches. At the north end are the buildings of New Bridge Street and the spire of St Martin Ludgate behind. In the centre of the picture, a wherry conveys passengers and their belongings downriver.

Presented by the Slater Foundation, 1975