The remains of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Bridge, standing forlorn in the River Thames at Blackfriars, were built in 1864 to bring freight and travelers from the Thames Estuary ports into central London. Falling into disrepair, the bridge’s trestle was demolished in 1984. Removal of the remaining columns would compromise the foundations of the adjacent Railway Bridge. The proposal converts the columns into a facility for the Port of London Authority, which manages ship traffic along the Thames. With globalization and the containerization of trade delegating local freight traffic to history, all that is left is a building displaying the results of business deals and movements of vast ships from far away.
