The bridges across the River Thames are a vital part of London’s transport infrastructure. The City of London Corporation owns and maintains four road bridges, and since the day of its re-opening in February 2002, the Corporation has taken over full responsibility for the Millennium Bridge.
The bridges need expert maintenance to ensure they do their job as gateways to the City and to keep the river safe for transport. They jointly bear the weight of 130,000 vehicles every day, nearly 50 million a year.」
【ロンドン橋
シティの橋
テムズ川にかかる橋は、ロンドンの交通インフラにおいて欠かせない存在です。
ロンドン市(City of London Corporation)は4つの道路橋を所有・維持管理しており、 2002年2月の再開以降はミレニアム橋についても全面的な責任を負っています。
at least 115 species of fish and 350 species of invertebrates (like estuarine shrimp or mud snails).
There are dozen of types of water birds, and dozens more use the river as their migratory route and feeding ground.
If the river is at low tide, you can see patches of foreshore.
This foreshore is of great ecological importance, as it provides a place for algae to grow, a base for seaweed and invertebrates, and feeding and spawning areas for fish.」
No one knows the real story behind the nursery rhyme about the bridge.
One theory is that it commemorates an attack by the Saxons and Vikings which destroyed it.
Perhaps a stronger theory is that the rhyme catalogues the slow deterioration of the medieval bridge of 1176, which lasted six hundred years, a vast period of time in which it partially collapsed twice and was severely damaged in the Great Fire of 1666.」
右手には歌詞が。 「London Bridge is falling down, Falling down, falling down London Bridge is falling down, My fair lady. Build it up with wood and clay, Wood and clay, wood and clay, Build it up with wood and clay, My fair lady. Wood and clay will wash away, Wash away, wash away, Wood and clay will wash away, My fair lady.」
【ロンドン橋落ちた、落ちた、落ちた
ロンドン橋落ちた、わたしの美しい人
木と粘土で造ろう、木と粘土、木と粘土
木と粘土で造ろう、わたしの美しい人
木と粘土は流される、流される、流される
木と粘土は流される、 わたしの美しい人】
この童謡「London Bridge is Falling Down」はイギリスの子どもの遊び歌で、橋の崩壊と再建を 繰り返し歌にしている点が特徴。 実際にロンドン橋は、歴史上何度も崩壊や焼失を繰り返してきた と。
The Monument, designed by Robert Hooke FRS in consultation with Sir Christopher Wren, was built 1671–1677, on the site of St Margaret Fish Street Hill, to commemorate the Great Fire of London 1666. The fire burnt from 2 to 5 September, devastating two-thirds of the City, and destroyed 13,200 houses, 87 churches, and 52 Livery Company Halls.
The Monument, a freestanding fluted Doric column topped by a flaming copper urn, is 61m/202ft in height, being equal to the distance westward from the site of the bakery in Pudding Lane where the fire broke out. Its central shaft originally housed lenses for a zenith telescope and its balcony, reached by an internal spiral staircase of 311 steps, affords panoramic views of the City. The allegorical sculpture on the pedestal above was executed by Caius Gabriel Cibber and shows Charles II coming to assist the slumped figure of the City of London.
ST MAGNUS THE MARTYR
Fish Street Hill, to the south, leads to St Magnus the Martyr, a Wren church, alongside which is the ancient street which led to the medieval London Bridge.」
Charles the Second, son of Charles the Martyr, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, a most Gracious Prince, commiserating the deplorable state of things, whilst the ruins were yet smoking, provided for the comfort of his citizens and the ornament of his city; remitted their taxes, and referred the consideration of the reparation of the Magistrates and Inhabitants of London to the Parliament, who immediately passed an Act that public works should be restored to a greater beauty, with public money to be raised by an imposition on coals, that churches, and the Cathedral of St Paul’s should be rebuilt from their foundations, with great magnificence; that the bridges, gates and prisons should be new made; the sewers cleansed; the streets made straight and regular; such as were steep levelled and those too narrow made wider, markets and shambles removed to separate places. They also enacted that every house should be built with party-walls, and all raised of an equal height in front; and that all house-walls should be strengthened with stone or brick; and that no man should delay building beyond the space of seven years. Furthermore, he procured an Act to settle beforehand the differences about meum and tuum (mine and yours), boundaries also being settled. An annual service of intercession was also established, and he caused this column to be erected as a perpetual memorial to posterity. Jesus it seems everywhere, London rises again, whether with greater speed or greater magnificence is doubtful. Three short years complete that which was considered the work of an age.」