Thames Street, London Thames Street, London Thames Street, divided into Lower and Upper Thames Street, is a road in the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London. It forms part of the busy A3211 route (prior to being rebuilt as a major thoroughfare in the late 1960s, it was the B132) from Tower Hill to Westminster. The London Bridge underpass marks the divide between Upper and Lower Thames Street, with Lower to the east and Upper to the west. Thames Street is mentioned in the diary of Samuel Pepys. The first mention of the road, however, is from 1013 when
Richmond Bridge, London bank of the Thames, west of the City of London or by river, had been the site of a royal palace since 1299. After it was destroyed by fire in 1497, Henry VII built a new palace on the site, naming it Richmond Palace after his historic title of Earl of Richmond, and the central part of Sheen became known as Richmond. Although a ferry had almost certainly existed at the site of the present-day bridge since Norman times, the earliest known crossing of the river at Richmond dates from 1439. The service was owned by the Crown, and operated