Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

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Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 167,011 pages of information and 246,691 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grosvenor Bridge

From Graces Guide
1866.
2023
2023
2023

Grosvenor Bridge, also known as the Victoria Railway Bridge, is a four-span railway bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Vauxhall Bridge and Chelsea Bridge. On the north bank is Pimlico to the north and east and Chelsea to the west; on the south bank is Nine Elms to the east and Battersea to the west. Battersea Power Station is immediately to the south of the bridge, and Battersea Park to the south west.

There has been a series of bridges here, reflecting the progressive increase in traffic. The first two wrought iron arch bridges were opened in the 1860s. Both bridges were described in Papers presented to the I.C.E. on 3 December 1867, summarised in The Engineer a week later[1].

First Bridge (built 1859-60)

The first bridge was described by William Wilson, who had supervised the construction. It was built by the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway, (a consortium of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway, the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, the Great Western Railway and the London and North Western Railway) in 1858-60 to carry trains on two tracks into Victoria station; it was the first railway bridge across the Thames in central London.

In preparation, the gravel was dredged out of the bed of the river, down to the clay substratum for a breadth of 100ft, and extending across the entire width of the river. Cofferdams were driven 4ft. below the level of the intended foundtion. When the enclosed area was cleared of water the clay was excavated to a depth of 40ft. below Trinity high-water level.

All six I-section ribs of each arch were alike in construction, but varied in sectional area: the two middle ribs each had a sectional area of 80 sq. in., the face ribs 53.4, and the intermediate ribs 71.2 sq. in. The ends of the wrought iron arch ribs were hinged, cast iron convex heels being bolted to the ends of the arch ribs, engaging with concave castings on the piers. The deck I-beams were 'continuous', but were provided with 'stiff' expansion/contraction joints above the piers. The joints featured elongated slots, and bolts with india-rubber washers.

This bridge was designed by Sir John Fowler. The general contractor was John Kelk of Pimlico. The ironwork contractor was Bray, Waddington and Co of Leeds. It was described and illustrated by William Humber. See here for text, and here for illustrations. It was identified as Victoria Bridge, Pimlico. Humber also includes a copy of the Specification. All wrought iron was to be obtained from the Monk Bridge Iron Co. Cross-girders and angle irons were supplied by the Butterley Co [2].

Second Bridge (built 1865-66)

Two lines soon proved to be totally inadequate for the volume of traffic, so a new bridge was added on the western side in 1865-66; initially it was intended that a new bridge would provide three lines for the London, Chatham and Dover Railway but the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway also required a third line into the station so, instead of building a completely separate bridge, the new structure abutted the earlier one.

The designer was Sir Charles Fox[3] and Edmund Wragge, contractors were Peto, Betts and Crampton, Lucas Brothers and W. and J. Pickering; 'Mr J. Heywood junior executed the ironwork for the Brighton company'[4][5]. However, other sources state that Ormerod, Grierson and Co of Manchester supplied and erected the ironwork.[6] [7] [8]. The apparent discrepancy is clarified below.

The width of the crossing was increased by 98 ft to 132 ft. The spans were nominally the same as those in the old bridge, i.e. four arches of 175ft. over the waterway, besides one span of 70ft., and one of 65ft. on either bank. The rise of the arches was the same, but the horizontal girder, running the whole length from end to end, was deeper, and none of the rivets in the facework were countersunk. In the first bridge an expansion joint was incorporated in the horizontal girder over each of the piers; in second bridge this girder was continuous throughout. In the first case the rib was simply a wrought iron arch, in the latter it was the lower member of a continuous girder. In the old bridge the width of the piers at the foundations was considerabiy extended, probably to meet the effect of the unequal thrust on the arched ribs caused by passing loads. In the new bridge the weight acted always vertically on the piers, such that Sir Charles Fox and Son were able to form the foundations of cast iron cylinders. These cylinders, of which there were four to each pier, are 21ft. in diameter, filled with concrete up to the level of the river bed, and above that with brickwork in cement to a little below low-water mark. At this level the masonry of the cylinders was connected by connected by arching, and faced with Roche Portland stone, similar to that in the old bridge. The ribs rested on cast iron skewbacks, which passed entirely through the piers; standards resting on the skewbacks supported the horizontal girder at top, to which they were bolted. The whole bridge from end to end being one connected mass of ironwork, thoroughly braced horizontally and vertically, and the whole being rivetted together at an average medium temperature, it was estimated that the extreme effect of change in the temperature would be to put an initial strain of four tons per square inch, either of compression or tension on the iron. The only effect that has yet been noticed is a rise of 2in. of the crown of the arch on a hot day.[9]Seven wrought iron arch ribs were used for each of the river spans, and wrought iron plate girders for the land spans. The spandrel filling over the arch ribs comprised members of wrought iron angle and T-section. The cross beams of the deck were I-section beams 12" deep, rolled by the Butterley Co. Opened c.1867.

Additional information from the 1867 I.C.E. Paper by C. D. Fox: Each span had eight wrought iron ribs 3ft 4" deep with flanges 18" wide, but for 38 ft in the centre they merged into one with the horizontal girders, giving a total depth at the centre of 4ft 6". The flange thickness reduced from 3" at the centre to 1.5" at the springing, the plated being 3/4" thick. 'The whole of the ironwork having been supplied and fixed by Messrs. Ormerod and Grierson, the sub-contractors.'

There were various other brick and iron bridges on the approach lines, for which 'The whole of the works had been executed from the design and under the superintendence of Sir Charles Fox, M. Inst. C. E. and the author, Mr. Edmund Wragge, being the resident engineer. The contractors were Messrs. Peto, Bettes, and Crampton, Messrs. Lucas Brothers, and Messrs. W. & J. Pickering, Mr. J. Heywood, jun., executing the iron work for the Brighton Company.'

Third Bridge (opened 1907)

In 1907 two more tracks were added on the upstream (western) side for the LB&SCR. This gave nine tracks in all, on three separate bridges having the same arch profile and sharing the same piers, but with different foundations. The 1860 and 1907 bridges were on concrete strip foundations, while the 1866 bridge was on cast iron cylinders. The 1860 bridge had wrought iron arches with hinge bearings, each arch supporting its own deck. The 1866 bridge also had wrought iron arch ribs, but with fixed bearings, and a continuous deck between abutments. The 1907 arch ribs were steel.

The work was described in The Engineer in 1905, paying particular attention to the foundations and piers [10]

Fourth Bridge (constructed 1963-67)

See here for a 1963 description of the planned reconstruction work.[11]. It states that the piers were to be enlarged, and encased in concrete. The new structure was to comprise eight bridges, each of its four welded box-section steel arches carrying the deck for one complete track. The half arch ribs would be bolted and welded at the crown after erection on site. There was a gap of 21 ft between two of the old bridges, and this would be used for an additional track. 8 of the 9 tracks had to be kept open, and cranes could not be used on the in-service tracks. The proposed arrangement of individual bridges permitted this. The arches and decks were to be prefabricated at Nine Elms.

The rebuilding was carried out in 1963–67. The designers were Freeman Fox & Partners, and the project engineer was A. H. Cantrell, chief civil engineer of the Southern Region of British Rail.


See Also

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Sources of Information

  1. The Engineer 1867/12/13 p.498
  2. The Engineer 1867/12/13 p.498
  3. The Engineer 1867/12/13
  4. The Engineer 1867/12/13
  5. Atlas - Saturday 25 August 1866
  6. [West London Observer - Saturday 25 February 1865]
  7. Engineering 1866/08/31
  8. The Engineer 1866/08/31
  9. The Engineer 1866/08/31, p.154 ff.
  10. The Engineer 1905/09/29 p.308ff.
  11. [1] Reconstruction of Grosvenor Railway Bridge: Railway Magazine, August 1963