The best of bridges
From Mr Peter Bazalgette
Sir: I am surprised that Paul Johnson should praise Tower Bridge (And another thing, 24 March), I, too, admire Sir John Wolfe-Barry's bascules; but Sir Horace Jones's design is the worst sort of chocolate-box Victorianism. It may be useful as a sentimental tourist symbol, but the other designs put forward at the time were much more exciting. Sir Horace himself originally favoured a suspension bridge. But let me declare an interest in the proposal of my great-great-grandfather, Sir Joseph Bazalgette — a magnificent single-span, arched bridge high enough to let all ships through to the Pool of London. It would have been his greatest work on the Thames — greater even than Hammersmith Bridge, the Embankments or the Crossness Engines.
Peter Bazalgette
London W11
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