Bridges and viaducts › Blackfriars Railway Bridge

Blackfriars Railway Bridge

The railway bridge over the Thames at Blackfriars, opened in 1886: five wrought-iron arch spans of 175 to 185 ft (53 to 56 m), carrying Blackfriars station, with 22.6 ft (6.9 m) of headroom under the central arch at high water.

Opened
1886
Line
Thameslink (Blackfriars station stands on the bridge)
Kind
Arch ribs (wrought iron, with steel ribs added 2009-12)
Length
About 980 ft (299 m)
Spans
Five, of 175 to 185 ft (53 to 56 m)
Width
81 ft (25 m) between the parapets; 123 ft (37 m) at the northern span
Headroom
22.6 ft (6.9 m) under the central arch at mean high water springs
Train drawn
Thameslink Class 700

unverified Some of these figures haven’t yet been checked against an official source or a published history. What’s in doubt ↓

Blackfriars Railway Bridge, schematic side elevation at 1 px a metre, with a Thameslink Class 700 crossing
A Thameslink Class 700 crossing. Schematic side elevation at 1 px a metre, a tenth of the scale of the train drawings: proportions from the published figures, details simplified.

Four times larger

Blackfriars Railway Bridge, schematic side elevation at 4 px a metre, with a Thameslink Class 700 crossing
A Thameslink Class 700 crossing. Schematic side elevation at 4 px a metre: proportions from the published figures, details simplified. Scroll sideways to see it all.

Close up

At 10 px a metre, the scale of the train drawings, so the train is the size it is on its own page. Each is cut from the same drawing.

Blackfriars Railway Bridge, close-up: Pier 2: its head rising to the deck, the ribs springing from its plinth, the spandrels' grid.
Pier 2: its head rising to the deck, the ribs springing from its plinth, the spandrels' grid.
Blackfriars Railway Bridge, close-up: A Thameslink Class 700 at the station on the centre span.
A Thameslink Class 700 at the station on the centre span.
Blackfriars Railway Bridge, close-up: The north end: the north span crosses the Embankment to its abutment.
The north end: the north span crosses the Embankment to its abutment.

Sources

How we source figures →  ·  Spotted a mistake? Tell us → (opens in a new tab)

Show the 9 sources from Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia, Grace's Guide, from Engineering 21 November 1890 and 8 February 1895 and 5 more
  • Blackfriars Railway Bridge Wikipedia, read 8 November 2026five wrought-iron spans: Surrey shore span 183 ft, centre and Middlesex shore spans 185 ft, second and fourth 175 ft; the three middle spans match the old bridge; 81 ft between parapets, 123 ft at the northern span; designed for four lines, extended to seven (the piers lengthened); engineers, contractor; renamed 1937
  • Blackfriars Railway Bridge Grace's Guide, from Engineering 21 November 1890 and 8 February 1895, read 8 November 2026five wrought-iron spans of 175 to 185 ft; ribs hinged at the abutments on 8 in wrought-iron pins, continuous at the crown; the 1864 piers: masonry with cast-iron cylinders 1 1/4-1 1/2 in thick, filled with brick and cement, held by 5 ft anchor bolts
  • Straddling the Thames Ingenia, Royal Academy of Engineering, read 8 November 2026an 1880s five-span wrought-iron arch bridge, spans of about 180 ft (55 m); 15 arch ribs, 4 ft 7 in (1.4 m) deep I-sections, in each span; widened 19 ft 8 in (6 m): one new steel rib line downstream, three upstream on the old piers' nearer columns; over 4,400 solar panels; a saw-tooth roof on a 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m) deep spine beam the length of the bridge; trains of 12 cars
  • Mariners' Guide to Bridges on the Tidal Thames Port of London Authority, 2026, p. 23five curved arches, three navigable (2, 3 and 4); arches numbered from the north shore; headroom above MHWS by arch 6.9, 6.9, 7.0, 7.2 (arch 1 not given), main arch 45 ft 11 in (14.0 m) above chart datum; at Blackfriars chart datum is 10 ft 0 in (3.05 m) below ODN and MHWS 23 ft 0 in (7.0 m) above chart datum; the 1864 bridge's four sets of cast-iron piers stand on the upstream side; stone-faced abutments and four intermediate piers
  • OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), read 8 November 2026the bridge's ends (979 ft (298.5 m) between them), the four pier centres, the river's edges on the axis (806 ft (245.6 m) apart), the platforms' order across the bridge (platform 1 on the downstream face), 30 mph (48 km/h) on the approaches
  • London Blackfriars Railway Bridge seen from Millennium Bridge (photograph) Ymblanter, via Wikimedia Commonspier head width, pier at the springing and foot, the rib's springing and crown, fascia, platform edge, screens, roof blades and posts, colours
  • Blackfriars Railway Bridge, north arch (photograph) Wikimedia Commons (geograph.org.uk)check of shapes: the pier at low water, the spandrel grid's rows, the roof blades' direction
  • Blackfriars Railway Bridge redundant bridge piers (photograph) Wikimedia Commonsthe 1864 columns' form and proportions (proposal only)
  • Standard platform height, 915 mm above rail (GIRT7020) Network Rail / RSSBthe rail drawn 3 ft 0 in (0.915 m) below platform 1's edge
unverified
  • Heights hang from one figure, the PLA's 22 ft 8 in (6.9 m) headroom over MHWS at the centre arch's crown, read as the soffit of the outer rib; everything else in height is read off one photograph (the Millennium Bridge view, about 1,083 ft (330 m) away, near deck height) at 15.1 px a metre, checked only by the rib's depth (4 ft 9 in (1.46 m) read against Ingenia's 4 ft 7 in (1.4 m)). No published deck, rail or pier-top level was found; Cruttwell's 1890 ICE paper (Min. Proc. ICE 101) should give them but is behind the ICE paywall, and The Engineer's 21 March 1890 report sits in a members-only scan on Grace's Guide.
  • The rail (30 ft 9 in (9.36 m) above MHWS) is platform 1's edge (33 ft 9 in (10.28 m), photograph) less the standard 3 ft 0 in (915 mm); the deck's own construction depth is not known.
  • The rise: every span is drawn with one rise (20 ft 6 in (6.25 m) from the springing at the pier centre to the rib's centre line at the crown), set so the rib's lower edge meets the pier face at 4 ft 9 in (1.46 m; photograph, centre span) and its crown at 22 ft 8 in (6.9 m). The PLA's headroom differs by arch (23 ft 7 in (7.2 m) at the south arch, 7.0, 6.9, 6.9): a level deck with a 0.3 m fall northwards, or ribs of slightly different rise; the drawing has one rise and a level rail. The rib is drawn as a half sine, not a circular segment.
  • Spans: the published clear spans are taken as measured between the piers at the springing (19 ft 8 in (6.0 m) wide there, photograph); that fits OSM's pier centres within 2 ft 0 in (0.6 m). If they are measured between the pier heads (16 ft 9 in (5.1 m)), the bridge would be 11 ft 10 in (3.6 m) shorter than OSM's.
  • The pier widths (16 ft 9 in (5.1 m) head, 19 ft 8 in (6.0 m) at the springing, 21 ft 0 in (6.4 m) at the foot) are read off the photograph through a perspective fit anchored on OSM's pier centres; the foot is drawn 9 ft 10 in (3 m) below MHWS, hidden by the water (the bed and foundations aren't drawn).
  • The spandrels: posts every 6 ft 11 in (2.1 m) and rows every 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m; photograph); the real grid has diamond bosses at the joints and diagonal cross-bracing in some panels (north arch photograph), left off.
  • The abutments are drawn as 49 ft (15 m) stone blocks up to the deck: the south abutment is now inside the station's south entrance building, and the north one under the Embankment and the north station building, neither seen in elevation; the ground (4 ft 3 in (1.3 m) above MHWS, about 17 ft 5 in (5.3 m) ODN) is estimated, and the Blackfriars underpass under the north span is left off.
  • The station (platform edge, screens, posts and the saw-tooth roof): its heights come from the same photograph; the roof's posts are drawn every 23 ft 0 in (7.0 m) over each span, starting over the piers (one post sits over pier 2's centre on the photograph); the blades' outline is simplified; the station's end buildings are left off.
  • The colours are read raw off the overcast photograph (rib paint, stone, fascia, water).
  • The line speed (30 mph (48 km/h)) is OpenStreetMap's maxspeed on the approaches; trains stop at Blackfriars.

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