Lambeth Bridge sits at a point on the river that was once an important landing stage.  Long before a bridge was built here, there was a horse-ferry that crossed from Millbank to Lambeth.  This ferry was the inspiration for Horseferry Road that leads onto the bridge today.  After much discussion and several failed attempts to bring it to fruition, a bridge was built here in 1862.  It crossed the river in three spans each just over 81 metres wide.  The iron structure of this bridge deteriorated over time and in 1901 it was closed to vehicular travel.  Londoners had to wait until 1932 to get a replacement.

Today’s Lambeth Bridge is a five span steel arch bridge that is Grade II Listed.  English Heritage say of it that, “The shallow steel arches, each consisting of nine ribs, ....


... support a reinforced concrete roadway between the balustrades, divided into a carriageway flanked by two footways. .....


... Steel caissons were used in the construction of the concrete piers which, like the abutments, are cased in polished Cornish granite. The coats of arms of London County Council are sculpted on the piers, below which two granite arms curve down to the top of the cutwaters."

"Obelisks at either end of the bridge are topped by stone pinecones, ancient symbols of hospitality; they are also thought to resemble pineapples and are linked to the renowned C17 botanist John Tradescant who is thought to have introduced the fruit to this country and is buried in the former Church of St Mary-in-Lambeth (now the Museum of Garden History) on the eastern approach to the bridge."