Continuing my walk along the Southbank of the River Thames, I start this day at Blackfriars Station
As I pass under the railway bridge I see the remains of a second railway bridge which once crossed the river here.
This restored bridge end is a reminder of the early days of rail travel in London. This originally led into St Paul’s station on the north side of the river, opened by the London Chatham and Dover railway in 1866, replacing Blackfriars Bridge station which was on the south bank of the river, roughly where the southern entrance to the new station is today. It was renamed Blackfriars in 1937 to avoid confusion with the tube station of the same name.
A little further on is the attractive Blackfriars road bridge.
In the underpass of the road bridge there are a number of murals depicting the building of the original bridges.
I then come to the pub, known today as Doggetts. I always knew this as ‘Doggett’s coat and badge’. Named after Thomas Doggett, organiser of the Watermen’s London Bridge to Chelsea boat race, first held in 1715. The coat and badge were the prize to the winner and were a sign of prestige amongst the Watermen who ferried people on the Thames..
This part of the Southbank forms part of a couple of named walks.
The next building of note is the OXO building. Originally it was built as a power station for the post office and opened towards the end of the 19th century. It was bought in the 1920s by the manufacturers of the OXO cube and much of the original building of the power station was demolished and replaced by the art deco building we see today in 1928-29. The owners wanted to have an advertisement for OXO cubes on the tower but permission was refused. So they got the architect to amend his plans and three windows were added which just happen to be two circles and a diagonal cross, spelling out the word OXO. the building fell out of use in the 1970s and lay unoccupied for a number of years. After years of discussions about what to do with the site, it was purchased in 1984 by the Greater London Council and sold at a reduced price to a non-profit organisation, Coin Street Builders. It was redeveloped and now includes housing, restaurants, shops and exhibition space.
