London Bridge is Falling Down

Information About London Bridge is Falling Down

"London Bridge Is Broken" is one of the earliest versions of the famous nursery rhyme "London Bridge Is Falling Down". The earliest printed version of the famous song can be found in ‘’Tommy Thumb´s Pretty Song Book’’ published in 1744.

The direct meaning of the rhyme is not known but may relate to the many problems experienced by Londoners in building and maintaining a bridge across the River Thames.

See our listing "London Bridge is Broken" for the lyrics to the earlier version.

According to the Britain Express web site this song may be related to an event around the turn of the first century on the Thames river. The Romans first built London bridge, probably out of wood. It had to be rebuilt many times because the River Thames kept sweeping it away.

The first London Bridge was built by the Romans from wood and it was later replaced with new timber several times after the Romans left the island. The bridge was burned down to avoid an invasion by the Danes in 1014AD, rebuilt and destroyed again by a storm in 1091, rebuilt and destroyed again by a fire in 1136.After the 1136 fire, London Bridge was rebuilt with stone and not finished until 1206. The King of England had the idea to build houses on the bridge, and it was soon occupied by houses, shops and even a chapel built at the centre of the bridge. London Bridge was eventually crowded with buildings of up to seven stories in height. The population of the bridge was large enough that the City appointed the bridge a district with its own alderman (congressman). Several arches of the bridge collapsed at various points, and several houses on the bridge were burnt in 1381 and in 1450. The buildings on London Bridge created a major fire hazard and increased the weight on London Bridge’s arches, so it is not surprising that there were several disasters on the bridge. In 1213, a major fire broke out on both ends of the bridge simultaneously, trapping many people in the middle of the bridge resulting in 3,000 deaths. Another major fire broke out in 1633 destroying a third of the bridge. By 1722, congestion was becoming so serious that the Mayor ordered that all traffic coming into the city must keep along the west side of the bridge: and traffic going out of the city must keep along the east side of the bridge. This is possibly the origin of traffic in Britain driving on the left. Eventually a new granite bridge was built in 1831 however after widening the bridge, in 1904, to keep up with congestion on the bridge, it was discovered that London Bridge was actually sinking so another bridge was built by 1973 and is still in place today. So, as you can see, London Bridge has a long history of falling down and there is no one significant event where it fell down as some may argue. Note the “ing” on the word fall signifies a process and not a completed action. The nursery rhyme is in fact quite accurate according to the history of the London Bridge.

History Old London Bridge, this is a useful website were you will find a wealth of information regarding the history of the London Bridge.