Before there was London, there was London Bridge. The capital’s oldest crossing was built before the city itself, by the Romans almost 2,000 years ago, to allow troops to press northwards on their invasion of Britain. It marked the most easterly point of the river where it was still narrow enough to build a bridge, and what is now the capital city began as a market on its northern side.

This early wooden structure was replaced over the centuries by several Anglo Saxon and Norman bridges, and later by a stone bridge in the 12th century which became famous throughout Europe for being almost entirely covered in houses, shops and even a church. It remained the only crossing of the Thames in London for more than six centuries, before Westminster bridge was added in the 18th century.

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