Old London Bridge

Old London Bridge, painted in 1753, records the medieval bridge lined with houses and shops that had spanned the Thames since 1209. Scott painted this venerable structure repeatedly before its houses were demolished in 1758-1762, and his views provide the most detailed pictorial record of the bridge in its final years as a functioning medieval street over water. The bridge, with its nineteen irregular arches and its teetering timber-framed buildings, was one of the great urban curiosities of Georgian London, both beloved and reviled — the narrow arches created dangerous rapids that watermen called 'shooting the bridge.

Scott renders the bridge's crowded superstructure with topographical precision, each building and archway carefully delineated. The Thames traffic below is depicted with characteristic maritime accuracy, the varied vessels creating a lively foreground.