Westminster Bridge
All photos of Westminster Bridge dated 2015-2016 are the actual ones and were taken with iPhone 5s.
Westminster Bridge is over the River Thames and links Westminster on the north side and Lambeth on the south side.
Westminster bridge is painted green. The leather seats in the House of Commons have the same colour. The Palace of Westminster is the nearest sightseeing to the bridge as well as Big Ben.
Westminster Bridge was designed by the Swiss architect Charles Labelye and it was built between 1739–1750.
By the mid 19th century the bridge was subsiding badly and expensive to maintain.
The current bridge was designed by Thomas Page and opened on 24 May 1862. Its length is 820 feet (250 m) and the width is 85 feet (26 m). Westminster Bridge is a seven-arch wrought iron bridge with Gothic detailing by Charles Barry who was the same architect of the Palace of Westminster.
Westminster Bridge is the oldest road bridge across the Thames in central London.
Filming on Westminster Bridge
In the 2002 British horror film 28 Days Later, the protagonist awakes from a coma to find London deserted, and walks over an eerily empty Westminster Bridge whilst looking for signs of life.
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Westminster Bridge is the start and finish point for the Bridges Handicap Race, a traditional London running race.
In the British science fiction TV series Doctor Who, Westminster Bridge has been used for various location shots. It was used originally in 1964 in the serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth which depicts the structure as desolate and deserted. Several Daleks are seen gliding over the bridge and the adjoining Albert Embankment. The location was then re-used by the production team when the series was revived in 2005 where the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler run across the bridge in the episode Rose. In 2006, with the Tenth Doctor, a shot of many Cybermen as 'ghosts' congregating on Westminster Bridge was used in the episode "Army of Ghosts". Then, in 2013, the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald cross the bridge on a motorbike in the episode The Bells of Saint John. It is also the name of a track in the Doctor Who Soundtrack album.
The bridge plays a prominent role in the Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch "Nationwide" ("Hamlet", Episode 43). Reporter John Dull (Graham Chapman) is sent to the bridge to find out if it is possible to sit in a chair and rest your legs whenever you want. A policeman (Michael Palin) confiscates his chair, saying it is stolen from a woman (Terry Jones in drag) who is standing across the street. Instead of giving the chair back to the woman, the policeman knocks her down and takes an identical chair from her and sits beside the reporter. He then takes different items from people walking or sitting nearby, finally breaking into a store (the crash of glass breaking is heard followed by the sound of an alarm) to get beer.
In the 2000 film 102 Dalmatians, Cruella de Vil goes mad after she hears the sound of Big Ben, and while on Westminster Bridge she sees everything white with black spots (the pattern of Dalmatians).
The final scene of the film Queen of the Damned shows Jesse and the Vampire Lestat walking across the Westminster Bridge towards Big Ben. In the finale of Spectre, Blofeld's helicopter crashes into Westminster Bridge.
Poetry about Westminster Bridge
William Wordsworth wrote the sonnet Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802.
Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning: silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!