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Coordinates: 51°29′05″N 0°08′51″W﻿ / ﻿51.48472°N 0.14750°W﻿ / 51.48472; -0.14750


Grosvenor Bridge
Grosvenor Bridge, London.jpg
Grosvenor Bridge with Vauxhall in the background and Battersea Power Station to the right
Coordinates 51°29′05″N 0°08′51″W﻿ / ﻿51.484722222222°N 0.1475°W﻿ / 51.484722222222; -0.1475Coordinates: 51°29′05″N 0°08′51″W﻿ / ﻿51.484722222222°N 0.1475°W﻿ / 51.484722222222; -0.1475
CrossesRiver Thames
LocaleLondon, England
Preceded byChelsea Bridge
Followed byVauxhall Bridge
DesignArch bridge
Total length283.5 m (930 ft 1 in)
Width54 m (177 ft 2 in)
Longest span53.3 m (174 ft 10 in)
Opened1860; rebuilt 1963-1967




The bridge was widened by four tracks on the eastern side for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and London, Chatham and Dover Railway between 1865 and 1866, at a cost of £245,000. Sir Charles Fox was the engineer.[1][3]

In 1907 the bridge was widened again with a further track, on the western side, for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.[1][4]

In 1963–67, the structure of the bridge was completely renewed and modernized, leaving only the cores of the original piers. At the same time, a tenth track was added in a space formerly used for gas mains. To minimize disruption to traffic, each track was renewed separately, and put back into service before the next one was closed. The designer for this work was Freeman Fox & Partners, and the project engineer was A. H. Cantrell, chief civil engineer of the Southern Region of British Rail.[5][6] It was said to be the busiest railway bridge in the world with 1000 trains crossing per day in 1968.[7]


On the north bank is Pimlico to the north and east and Chelsea to the west; the Lister Hospital and the Royal Chelsea Hospital lie immediately to the north 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.

See alsoEdit



  1. ^ a b c "Victoria (Grosvenor) Bridge, site of",
  2. ^ Wilson 1868.
  3. ^ Fox 1868.
  4. ^ Railway Magazine, 1963, p.533
  5. ^ "Railway Bridge Across the Thames" on YouTube
  6. ^ Railway Magazine, 1963, pp.534, 542
  7. ^ Grolier 1968, p. 41.


Further readingEdit

  • Kerensky, O. A.; Partridge, F. A. (1967). "The Reconstruction of the Grosvenor Railway Bridge. (over the River Thames)". ICE Proceedings. 36 (4): 721. doi:10.1680/iicep.1967.8471.

External linksEdit