Blackfriars Bridge Poetry Tiles

The Thames Path underpass beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London features ceramic tiles reproducing historical Guildhall Library engravings of the bridge through the centuries. Officially opened on October 11, 1995, the pedestrian tunnel showcases designs from 1756 by Edward Oakley and 1764 by architect Robert Mylne. Above, stone carvings by sculptor John Birnie Philip feature seabirds on the east side and freshwater birds on the west.

London Β· from the walk β€œThe Artist's Thames” Β· audio ~3 min Β· Generated

Thames Path under Blackfriars Bridge, London SE1 9UD

Why do the stone bird carvings on Blackfriars Bridge differ between the east and west sides?

Slow down. Take a breath. Look at what you walk past every day without seeing.......... Right here, beneath Black-friars Bridge, the wall of the Thames Path holds a secret gallery. This south-bank pedestrian tunnel is decorated with prints from the Guildhall Library β€” historical engravings transferred onto ceramic tiles, showing scenes of this bridge across the centuries. Glimpses into the history of the bridge shown on the underpass tiling include three designs by Edward Oak-ley for the first Blackfriars Bridge from seventeen fifty-six... and part of Mylne's bridge under construction in seventeen sixty-four. Most people rush past on the way to the Tate without a second glance.......... But who designed the Original bridge that these tiles celebrate? The original Blackfriars Bridge opened in seventeen sixty-nine and was designed by Robert Mylne, a Scottish architect, then aged only twenty-six. Mylne had studied architecture in Rome, and his design was influenced by Piranesi. Think about that. A penniless young Scotsman, trained by the greatest architectural visionary of the eighteenth century. In seventeen fifty-eight, he became the First Briton to win the triennial architecture competition at the Accademia di San Luca. In Rome, Robert Adam β€” a fellow Scot of much greater means β€” was disdainful of the Mylne brothers' modest situation, but noted begrudgingly that Robert "begins to draw extremely well."

...... And Piranesi himself was so proud of his student's work that he made an engraving, based on Mylne's reports, of the bridge under construction. An Italian master... immortalizing a London bridge on copper plate. You can see that very engraving at the Yale Art Gallery today.......... Now look UP at the bridge itself. On the piers are stone carvings of water birds by sculptor John Birnie Philip. Here's a detail an artist would love. On the east, downstream side, the carvings show seabirds; those on the west, upstream side show freshwater birds β€” reflecting the role of Blackfriars as the tidal turning point. The whole bridge is a diagram of the river's ecology, carved in stone!......... And Philip has a secret connection to one of the greatest painters who ever worked on the Thames. His daughter Beatrice married James McNeill Whistler in eighteen eighty-eight. Yes, That Whistler β€” the man who painted the Thames in moonlit nocturnes. And Philip's youngest daughter, Rosalind Birnie Philip, became Whistler's companion, secretary and housekeeper after Beatrice's death, and was appointed his executrix. So the sculptor who decorated This bridge... became family to the artist who reinvented how we See this river.......... And the art never stopped accumulating here. With Saint Paul's Cathedral in the background, the bridge became the subject of a number of eighteenth-century oil paintings, notably William Marlow's view of Saint Paul's from the South Bank. Born in Southwark, Marlow was a student of Samuel Scott, and his work echoed both Scott and Caneletto's paintings of London. He painted this exact view where you're standing now β€” as if London were Venice.......... The Blackfriars Bridge pedestrian underpass was officially opened on the eleventh of October, nineteen ninety-five. At the western end of the tunnel, an art student named Hannah Wilson once added some spoof text, a mock history claiming the bridge was ordered from an Argos catalogue. Guerrilla art, layered right on top of the official art. Layer upon layer... just like the river itself.

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