please empty your brain below
Ripply mousey table - very likely made by Robert Thompson of Kilburn, North Yorkshire.

Gordon | 01.05.23 - 7:05 a.m. | #

Former Medway crossings reutilised by the Rochester Bridge Trust
The 1970 road bridge uses the piers of an earlier railway bridge built in 1858 by the East Kent railway (later known as the London Chatham & Dover Railway). That bridge was closed in 1927, all trains being diverted to run over the South Eastern Railway's 1891 bridge, (which had been disused since the closure of the South Eastern Railway's Chatham Central branch in 1911).

Timbo | 01.05.23 - 7:41 a.m. | #

Ah, Baggins Books……. I must go there again. Always good for losing an hour or so.

Jo W | 01.05.23 - 7:42 a.m. | #

Brilliant post, thank you. Wise people many years ago have left an asset whose accounts suggest is worth north of £100m. The power of foresight and public spirit and the careful stewardship over many years.

Jim | 01.05.23 - 7:53 a.m. | #

Shame they're not responsible for Hammersmith Bridge.

ap | 01.05.23 - 8:27 a.m. | #

I've been told by the wheelchair-bound that sesame lifts aren't very popular. They're slow, prone to being broken down, and are an unnecessary bar to access where a ramp would have been faster, cheaper, and left any historic steps beneath the ramp alone.

Chz | 01.05.23 - 9:11 a.m. | #

IIRC the 1970s road bridge rests on the piers of an earlier railway bridge. So up to that time there was one road bridge (the old bridge) and two railway bridges built by competing railway companies.

Mike | 01.05.23 - 10:04 a.m. | #

And the London Bridge Estates uses the funds it raised from tolls and rents since it was formally established in the 13th century (but probably operating in some form before) to maintain five city bridges (not Hammersmith) and uses its excess funds to provide about £30m a year to be disbursed charitably through the City Bridge Trust. But that is a very small fraction of the amount of financial support provided each year through social security and other central and local government endeavours. We can’t rely only on charity to provide all the necessary social and physical infrastructure.

Andrew | 01.05.23 - 10:14 a.m. | #

IIRC = If I’d Read Comments

Damian | 01.05.23 - 10:51 a.m. | #

Sounds like a fun day out, especially with the Morris Dancers.

Cornish Cockney | 01.05.23 - 10:58 a.m. | #

At the risk of being that person, there are now 2 motorway bridges; the original, now carrying the coast bound motorway and the 2003 new bridge carrying the London bound carriageway

Ian | 01.05.23 - 11:05 a.m. | #

Yes, the M2 was rebuilt and widened at around the same time as HS1 was built next to it. Indeed there's a nice symmetry that the Medway now has two sets of 3 bridges.

Amazing that money invested centuries ago can still maintain the current bridges. They had good investment managers clearly.

Mikey C | 01.05.23 - 12:07 p.m. | #

Welcome to the Towns, allegedly the largest urban area in Europe without a University until UKC arrived.

Chatham-born, I’d be curious to read your take on the high street, although fear even your skills at content production have their limits.

Lux | 01.05.23 - 9:24 p.m. | #

re Chatham: Previously I've walked from the station towards the historic dockyard and that felt regenerated, but this time I walked the full High Street (which runs at right-angles) and that didn't feel regenerated at all.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 01.05.23 - 9:31 p.m. | #

Thanks. You're right: one of the wards near the centre of Chatham is amongst the 150 most deprived in England, which one doesn't always expect when looking at nearby Norman architecture and waterfront redevelopments.

Lux | 02.05.23 - 12:57 p.m. | #











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