Grosvenor Railway Bridge
Victoria/Battersea, London SW1 and SW8

Also known as the Victoria Bridge, this was the first railway bridge to span the Thames into central London.

The bridge was built to the design of John Fowler for the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LB & SCR). Fowler was instructed to build a bridge with piers conforming to neighbouring Chelsea Bridge, just 150 yards upstream.

Work began on 9 June 1859 and the the first train passed over the Grosvenor Railway Bridge exactly a year later. 

The bridge allowed the LB&SCR to extend its operations into the West End at Victoria Station but the company also leased out the track and station to several other companies.  Even the broad-gauge GWR was able to run trains into Victoria Station.

The London Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) later worked with the LB & SCR to construct a second bridge in order to lay more tracks.  The new, 100 ft wide bridge, designed by Sir Charles Fox to match the existing bridge, was opened in 1866. 

By the turn of the 20th century the bridges became insufficient to meet the needs of the railway and a third bridge was constructed downstream in 1907 to increase the width to 178 ft and bringing the number of tracks up to ten. 

The whole bridge was replaced piecemeal by Freeman, Fox & Partners between 1963 - 67.   In effect the engineers built ten separate bridges, each bearing one line of track, and brought the complete structure up to date.  

Victoria Station remains one of the busiest terminals in London and as a result the Grosvenor Bridge is one of the few railway bridges in the capital that has escaped rationalisation.