Vauxhall Bridge: Eight Hidden Giants
Vauxhall Bridge in London features eight hidden, two-tonne bronze statues of women mounted on its piers above the River Thames, added in 1907 using surplus budget from its 1906 construction. Designed by Sir Alexander Binnie, the bridge features four upstream statues by Frederick Pomeroy—including Architecture holding a miniature St Paul's Cathedral—and four downstream by Alfred Drury. In 1993, archaeologists also discovered 3,500-year-old Bronze Age bridge timbers nearby.
London · from the walk “Secrets of Vauxhall: Spies, Pleasure & Hidden London” · audio ~3 min · Generated
Vauxhall Bridge, London SW1V 4SS
- Designed by Sir Alexander Binnie, London's Vauxhall Bridge opened in 1906 under budget, leaving extra funds for public artwork.
- Sculptors Alfred Drury and Frederick Pomeroy created eight colossal two-tonne bronze statues that were installed on Vauxhall Bridge in 1907.
- Pomeroy’s statue representing Architecture holds a two-foot-long miniature model of St Paul's Cathedral over the River Thames.
- In 1993, shifting currents near Vauxhall Bridge exposed oak timber posts dating to around 1500 BC, Britain's oldest known bridge structure.
Why are there eight bronze statues mounted on the side of Vauxhall Bridge in London?
Now look at me... you're standing on Vaux-hall Bridge right now, and I'd wager you have NO idea what's hiding just beneath your feet. Not underground... but clinging to the very sides of this bridge, invisible from where you stand.......... Eight colossal bronze women... each one twice life-size, each weighing around two tonnes... are perched on the piers below, gazing out over the Thames. And yet ninety nine percent of the people who cross this bridge every single day have absolutely no idea they're there.......... Here's how they came to be. The bridge you're standing on opened in nineteen oh six, designed by Sir Alexander Bin-nie. It came in Under budget... imagine that, a London construction project under budget! And so the Lon-don County Council decided to spend the leftover money on art. They consulted the renowned architect Richard Nor-man Shaw, who proposed monumental bronze statues above each pier. Three sculptors were hired... but one, George Framp-ton, dropped out due to pressure of work. That left Alfred Droo-ry and Frederick Pom-eroy, each taking four figures.......... On the fourth and fifth of September, nineteen oh seven, workmen hauled these giants into position... lowering them over the parapets by crane, one by one. Pom-eroy's four face upstream... Agriculture, Architecture, Engineering, and Pottery. Droo-ry's four face downstream... Science, Fine Arts, Local Government, and Education.......... Now here's the secret within the secret. If you carefully lean over the upstream parapet... the second pier along... look at the hands of the figure representing Architecture. In one hand she holds a compass. And in the other... a miniature model of Saint Paul's Cathedral. About two feet long, incredibly detailed, weathered by over a century of Thames wind and rain. It is, quite possibly, the smallest cathedral in all of England.......... And Pom-eroy? He wasn't just any sculptor. This is the Same man who created the famous Lady Jus-tice statue atop the Old Bai-ley... that golden figure of sword and scales you see on every courtroom drama. He was working on both projects at virtually the same time, around nineteen oh five to nineteen oh seven.......... But the story of crossing the river Here goes back Far longer than any bridge. In nineteen ninety three, shifting currents washed away layers of silt just upstream... revealing oak timber posts dating to around fifteen hundred B C. The remains of a Bronze Age bridge or jetty, with two parallel rows of massive oak posts, possibly the Oldest bridge structure ever found in Britain. Two bronze spearheads were discovered driven deep into the foreshore beside them... not lost, but deliberately placed... a ritual offering to the river, three and a half Thousand years ago.......... So the next time someone tells you Vaux-hall Bridge is just a busy road, remind them... eight hidden giants watch the water below, one of them cradling a cathedral in her palm... and beneath the mud, the ghosts of an ancient crossing still sleep.