Replace Hammersmith Bridge using City Bridge Foundation funds to remedy London's uncoordinated governance
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/simonjenkins. "Hammersmith Bridge is a symbol of our dysfunctional times. The money is there, the joined-up thinking isn’t | Simon Jenkins | The Guardian." October 23, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
Hammersmith Bridge has been shut to cars for seven years because nobody will take charge or pay for it, and the closure is clogging south London. The author argues the bridge is too old to fix cheaply, so it should be replaced, and that a rich medieval bridge charity could pay for it if the City of London changed its rules.
Conclusion
A new Hammersmith Bridge should be built soon, funded by reforming the City Bridge Foundation's charter so its wealth can be spent on London-wide river crossings, because the bridge's long closure exemplifies a failure of coordination and leadership in London and British government.
Premises
- Hammersmith Bridge has been closed to motor traffic for seven years, and with Albert Bridge also closed, about 37,000 extra vehicles are causing near-perpetual gridlock in south London.
- No authority is taking responsibility: Hammersmith and Fulham council owns the bridge but says it cannot absorb the £300m restoration cost, has spent £54m on a closed bridge, and the Mayor of London has shown no interest in the matter.
- The bridge's iron structure has reached the end of its life, so repair would be only temporary or astronomically expensive, which makes replacement the common-sense option.
- London's wider infrastructure management is similarly uncoordinated (very high congestion, slow buses, about 490,893 roadworks in 2024, unregulated utility digging), which shows the bridge is symptomatic of systemic dysfunction.
- The City Bridge Foundation holds about £1.5bn in assets and was created to maintain London's bridges, yet spends heavily on causes unrelated to bridges and is restricted by its charter to five crossings.
- The City of London Corporation, as trustee, can amend the charter to allow reinvestment in infrastructure, and the foundation's legacy wealth ought to serve the whole metropolis.
Assumptions
- Replacing the bridge is preferable to a temporary or expensive long-term repair.
- The City Bridge Foundation's wealth can legitimately be redirected, and the Corporation has both the legal power and the willingness to amend the charter.
- The foundation's current charitable spending is of lower value than funding a bridge.
- A bridge-specific funding fix would address, or at least meaningfully relieve, the broader governance dysfunction.
- The original intent of the medieval bridge endowment supports its use for crossings beyond the five named.
- The Hammersmith problem is mainly about money and coordination, not about technical, heritage, planning, or local political obstacles.