The Bridge Built By Women

When the Waterloo Bridge over River Thames opened in the December 1945, Deputy Prime Minister, Herbert Morrison spoke on its inauguration:

The men who built Waterloo Bridge are fortunate men. They know that although their names may be forgotten, their work will be a pride and use to London for many generations to come.

Although well-meaning, what Morrison failed to acknowledge was that a substantial number of workers who built the bridge were actually women.

Waterloo Bridge in London. Photo: Maurie Hill | Dreamstime.com

The Waterloo Bridge is regarded as one of the finest bridges in London. Strategically located on a bend in the river, the bridge allows great views of the Westminster, the South Bank and the London Eye to the west, and of the City of London and Canary Wharf to the east. Although its name commemorates the victory of the British over the French in the Battle of Waterloo, to this day the bridge is colloquially referred to as “the ladies’ bridge”.

The original Waterloo Bridge, initially known as the Strand Bridge, was built between 1811 and 1817. It was a granite bridge with nine arches separated by double Doric stone columns, and was nearly 2,500 feet long. The bridge served well for over a hundred years, but probably due to increased volume of traffic crossing the bridge, one of the piers settled into the riverbed causing the bridge to dip at the Strand end. In the 1930s, the London County Council decided to demolish the bridge and replace it with a new structure designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

Photo: Daily Herald Archive/national Museum Of Science And Media/science And Society Picture Library

By the time war broke out in 1939, a large portion of the bridge was already completed. But then, the men were called away to the fight the war and the positions they vacated were filled in by women. From 500 men that were known to have been working on the bridge in the 1939, their numbers reduced to just 50 by 1941. It is hard to estimate what proportion of the workforce was female, but according to the UK-based Women’s Engineering Society, some 350 women might have worked on the Waterloo Bridge.

There is little written record about these women who helped build the bridge. Since the building contractor Peter Lind & Company liquidated its assets in the 1980s, the firm’s employment records have vanished. But thanks to the investigative efforts of historian Christine Wall, we now have some photographs.

Wall also teamed up with filmmaker Karen Livesey and created a documentary called The Ladies Bridge, which explores the stories of the women working on Waterloo Bridge and records first-hand the experiences of a variety of female wartime workers.

Photo: Daily Herald Archive/national Museum Of Science And Media/science And Society Picture Library

References:
# Waterloo Bridge, Historic England
# Anika Burgess, Women Built London's Waterloo Bridge, But It Took These Photos to Prove It, Atlas Obscura