An evening walkshop with Travis Elborough: a revealing everything you could possibly want to know about London Bridge, but also an opportunity to consider the politics behind bridging the Thames.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the sale of the largest antique ever to be sold in to the American market. Some will remember the stories that circulated around at the time, that an eccentric multimillionaire had mistakenly bought the wrong bridge.
There is a lot more history to bridging the Thames than what might have been wrongly done 50 years ago. Not only was it a key thoroughfare, but until very recently it was the only bridge over the Thames. Without any competition, it became a money-spinner for the City of London, and its very uniqueness influenced the growth of London south of the river. Even today, there’s lot of talk about how money may have been swindled from the public purse in the pursuit of crossing the Thames. Meet a cast of peculiar characters, including revolutionary radicals, frock-coated industrialists, Thames waterman, dockers and stevedore, Guinness Book of Records officials, the odd Lord Mayor, bridge-building priests and an Apache Indian or two, when you join Travis Elborough and the Museum of Walking on this Thames adventure.
Travis Elborough is the author of the bestselling: “London Bridge in America: The Tall Story of a Transatlantic Crossing”.
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