London’s defining landmark, Tower Bridge,
has officially opened its ‘Launching a Landmark: The Unseen Opening Weeks’ exhibition, to coincide with the 130th anniversary of its completion date.
The free, innovative exhibition, which can be found on monoliths on the piers on the Bridge, features never-before-seen photography from its opening weeks in 1894.
A stark contrast to existing photography of the official Royal opening, the candid photographs featuring the workers of the Bridge and members of the public, have been
inventively brought to life and will be situated along the Bridge as close as possible to the location they were taken in.
Digital technology has enabled the Bridge’s exhibition team to add colour to a selection of the photos, breathing new life into the characters and scenes depicted. To
further transport visitors back to the time of the opening, augmented reality has been used to illustrate the London of 1894 from viewpoints along the Bridge, creating a fully immersive experience.
The collection of photographs was recently discovered by the Molineux family, descendants of Tower Bridge resident engineer, Edward Cruttwell, in a box in their family
home. Originally from Frome, Somerset, Cruttwell was educated at Clifton College and learned engineering at King’s College. As Resident Engineer, he oversaw the building of Tower Bridge and continued to work for the Bridge House Estates, overseeing the working
Bridge, until 1897.
Patrick Molineux, Cruttwell’s great grandson who discovered the photographs, said,
“My mother had stored the photos for decades in an archive box, and we were pleasantly shocked to discover that they’d never been seen publicly. It’s always been a source of pride for our family to have such a connection to an icon like Tower Bridge so we
couldn’t quite believe that we’d discovered such a piece of history. We can’t wait to see them on display and to bring the rich history to life with the exhibition.”
Dirk Bennett, Exhibition Development Manager at Tower Bridge, added,
“‘Launching A Landmark: The Unseen Opening Weeks’ is like nothing we’ve staged at the Bridge before. Having newly unearthed photography and innovative digital content is incredibly exciting, and the team here has worked hard to be able to tell the personal
stories of the diverse workers and local communities too. We’re proud to be celebrating the workers who helped build Tower Bridge and the Londoners who were the first to cross it with local communities at our free, open-air exhibition this summer.”
Ways to experience ‘Launching A Landmark: The Unseen Opening Weeks’:
·
When: Open daily, any time,
from 22 June – 30 September
·
Where: On and around Tower
Bridge and online at towerbridge.org.uk
·
How:
o
Take in the monoliths along the piers on the Bridge which display the photography and information behind the images and the work that took
place to build the Bridge
o
An augmented reality (AR) experience to transport visitors back to the London landscape at the time of the Bridge’s build – just use the
QR codes on the displays to access
o
A new website experience offers an additional collection of photographs, as well as in-depth, historical insights into topics such as social
history, civil engineering and fashion in London at the time.
·
Cost: All features of the
exhibition are free to enjoy. It is the first exhibition in five years to be installed outside of the attraction and in the public realm.
In addition to the newly discovered images, the exhibition will also feature archive images from the Bridge, to chronologise the events that took place in the final weeks
in the lead up to both the official opening on 30 June and the public opening on 9 July.
Designed by Sir Horace Jones, in collaboration with Sir John Wolfe Barry, Tower Bridge took eight years and 432 construction workers to build. When complete, the Bridge
was the largest and most sophisticated bascule bridge of its time. Today, it is seen as an iconic, historical landmark and an internationally recognised symbol of London and the UK. It has been open to the public as a tourist attraction since 1982, welcoming
almost one million visitors in 2023, and sees some 40,000 motorists and pedestrians use it as a connection between the North and South of London, every day.
Launching A Landmark: The Unseen Opening Weeks is open from 22 June and will run throughout the summer until the end of September. No booking is required. For more information
about the exhibition, visit: towerbridge.org.uk.
