Canal – Bridge to Nowhere

New Image of Bridge to Nowhere

Andrew Pearson — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:50:20 +0000

A fresh image of the Bridge to Nowhere taken during its construction has just come to the attention of this website. The image appears to have been taken as the bridge was almost complete, probably just before its opening, in the winter of 1905/6.

P 22987 ‘Surrey Canal Bridge’

The image appears in a Camberwell Book of Photographs dated 1906, put together by Camberwell Borough Council, and now part of Southwark Archives, with the reference RES OS 942.1642. The full story of the construction can be found on our page on the Bridge here.

The photograph is taken from on top of a building on the north side of the canal, looking across to the houses on St George’s Way (just visible on the left). The building would have been the sheepskin/fleece factory of Strong and Rawle at that time. This section of the canal has clearly been drained to aid the construction, with a lighter (barge) placed underneath, presumably to allow access over the otherwise muddy canal bed.

Did you spot the two gents standing on boards on the side of the bridge? Presumably working on the bridge, nevertheless they have turned out very smartly for the photographer, in suit and tie! Or perhaps they’re foremen, or one of them is even the Borough Engineer, William Oxtoby, who designed the bridge.

Enhanced image:

Bridge to Nowhere gets a Facelift

Andrew Pearson — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 18:17:20 +0000

That familiar sight in the park, the canal footbridge, as recent park visitors will have noticed, has just been having some extensive work done. It was a Godsend when built in 1905, with the area probably at its most dense with housing, factories and people. It sadly became a Bridge to Nowhere from 1970, when the canal it crossed was filled in. Since the 1990s, it’s even been unsafe for sight-seeing from its grand height of about 10 feet up, and looking in an increasingly sorry state.

Southwark Council had to make the difficult decision to demolish or retain and renovate the bridge. Just leaving it to further deteriorate was not an option. Thankfully, following a survey of the condition in 2021, they decided on repair and renovation. For those of us interested in the heritage of the park, that was the Right Decision!

The survey revealed a few areas of deterioration, leading to potential health and safety concerns, and a list of repairs was drawn up:

Remove and replace footways on the bridge deck
Carry out replacement or repair of deteriorated transverse and parapet beams
Replace existing spreader beams
Break out eroded brickwork on the south abutment and replace with matching new
Supply and install new concrete coping stones along top of existing wall
Repair all cracks in existing brickwork and pointing
Sandblast all metal parts and re-paint to original colour

Work started in April 2023, and was scheduled for 3 months at a cost of £323,553, sadly around 100 times the original cost of the bridge in 1905! But it’s a thorough job and it’s now looking really smart. All the TLC should ensure that this great symbol of Burgess Park survives well into the 21^st century. AND, we won’t need to change the name of this website!

Read more about the history of the building of the bridge on our dedicated page.

Stop Press!

The bridge is now open to pedestrians! Check the news here.

Trafalgar Avenue bridge

Andrew Pearson — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 17:12:29 +0000

Yes – there is still a bridge taking Trafalgar Avenue over the route of the former Grand Surrey Canal! It was news to this author that the slight rise in the road where it crosses the park disguises a modern concrete replacement bridge, not merely a pile of demolished buildings.

A first glimpse of the bridge appears in 2016

It’s not quite clear (maybe someone can explain) why an expensive bridge was built, although the canal had been filled in in 1970.

Unfortunately, bridges need inspecting periodically, and when that time came around last year, it proved to be a bigger task than at first envisaged.

Typically for the development of the park, it was discovered that the void beneath the bridge had been used to dispose of all kinds of waste, including asbestos.

Works have therefore taken quite some time, and the whole space beneath has been excavated in order to build permanent inspection chambers, so that in future, the job will be a bit easier.

Under-bridge area cleared – visualise a canal now?!

The brick tower next to the bridge above is a ventilation chamber for the 132kV London electricity ring-main, cables for which were laid under the park as it was being developed in the 60s or 70s.

Of course, an imaginative administration might have thought about the posibility of restoring some water to the area, in some sort of memorial to the days of the canal. However, a brick-built inspection chamber is going in and the whole are will be backfilled and restored to grass.

Archaeological find

Did you spot the ubiquitous R Whites lemonade bottle in the image above? Somehow recovered intact, despite the heavy earth-movers, these can be found all over the park, wherever a hole is dug.

1830 view of what was probably the first Trafalgar bridge, looking west. Glengall wharf and the Peckham branch are behind the artist/extreme left. St Georges church in the background

Glengall Wharf Canal Wall – Update 1

Andrew Pearson — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 15:56:44 +0000

You may have seen our blog 2 years ago on this historic bit of Surrey Canal infrastructure. The only remaining section of canal bank, which marked the junction of the Camberwell branch (1810) with the Peckham branch (1830) of the Grand Surrey Canal, has probably stood in this position, if not this state, for 120-150 years.

However, although still absolutely solid, the surface is beginning to crumble and become unsightly, especially for the new flats opposite, and the council have been determined to replace it. Work started at the beginning of 2017 on a like-for-like replacement (rather than suburban bypass-style concrete block planters), as far as funds and practicality allow. The top end of Surrey Canal walk has been closed whilst this happens.

Cobbles of the former council refuse yard forming a beautiful basis for the garden. Pre-works test pit in the foreground

First up was the removal of a two metre-wide strip of the beautifully worn cobbles on the top surface, which now forms the ground level for the Glengall Wharf Community Garden.

The work has been majorly disruptive for the garden, involving the removal of a fine old self-seeded plum tree and many garden structures. However, it was arranged to take place in winter, outside the growing season, to at least minimise this.

These cobbles, known as granite setts, have been taken up with a JCB and as far as possible preserved for replacement when the wall work is complete. It was thought that they’d been set solidly in concrete, but they’ve mostly come away cleanly, minus a few breakages.

Plum tree cut down and cobbles being taken up

Granite setts being sorted and stacked for storage and reuse

Around the end of January, work started on excavating beneath the garden surface and removing soil from behind the wall. Here things got interesting for the contractors, as they discovered the foundations of the rubbish chutes, visible in the photo beneath, and on our previous blog

Bases of rubbish chutes, buried in concrete beneath the cobbles. Probably cut down at the closure of the yard and formation of Burgess Park

Sailing barges moored up next to steel girder refuse chutes

Now, it’s a case of tearing down the old wall and carting it away.

Note the girder, impossible to remove from the concrete, to be cut back

One or two interesting finds were made:

Stash of earthenware mineral water bottles, various manufacturers. All previously broken, unfortunately!

It also became clear that a previous wall had existed further back than the concrete wall, judging by the foundations uncovered:

Work is due to finish in March 2017, so watch this space for updates. Please do go and see the works for yourself, and don’t hesitate to leave a comment here!

Council to demolish last vestiges of canal

Andrew Pearson — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 23:30:02 +0000

Southwark Council has decided that the original retaining wall of Glengall Wharf should be replaced with a concrete block barrier similar to those used on motorway embankments. Flowers and plants in the gaps will look ‘nice’, but effectively erase any idea of a canal bank.

Original wall of Surrey Canal round Glengall Wharf

The existing wall is certainly not pretty, but it’s a major piece of industrial archaeology from the days when the canal ran alongside and turned down towards Peckham. Apart from the small low concrete ledge in the grass oppposite, it’s the only piece of original canal bank left on the entire three and a half mile length of the Grand Surrey Canal. It features in numerous historic photos of the area.

In this image, you can see the black painted wall with timber fenders attached part way down. In the present-day image above and below, the black painting is still visible, with plain concrete below, where the fenders had been attached.

Two stone blocks just visible, embedded in concrete

It’s also still possible to see large stone blocks embedded in the wall, if you take a walk today. These were the footings of the large loading chutes visible in the historic image. There are 12 visible on the Peckham route, corresponding to the 6 loading chutes which were on that side of Glengall Wharf.

It seems a great shame to bury almost the last signs of industrial canal heritage for the sake of a tidy-up.

See more on the history of the wharf here.

Museum of London – ‘Crowd-sourcing’ Project

Andrew Pearson — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:25:05 +0000

The Museum of London, in its role a keeper of the Port of London Authority archive, recently completed a project to gather information on a cache of 150 or so photographs of the Grand Surrey Canal. It’s thought these were taken between 1915 and 1925, and were attached to a notebook. They can be seen on the MOL site here.

Whitten Timber exhibition

Andrew Pearson — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:22:55 +0000

(N.B. August 2014 – now closed – sorry if you missed it)

August 2014, Peckham Platform, London SE15 5RS, View Map
0207 358 9645
info@peckhamplatform.com

For a copy of the booklet shown here, or information on how the exhibition was put together, call in at Whitten’s Timber and ask for Jimmy.

Industries on the Grand Surrey Canal

admin — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 17:57:16 +0000

Local children took part in researching the industrial history that took place in and around the Grand Surrey Canal which once ran through what is now part of Burgess Park. Their ideas and endeavours will result in an art installation in the underpass in the park with the help of local artists’ group ‘Art in the Park’.

Jowett Street Park workshops gallery

admin — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 14:27:52 +0000

The traditional craft workshops run by Friends of Burgess Park as part of their history project Bridge to Nowhere were greeted with enthusiasm and a desire to learn craft skills – especially knitting. The word got about and well over 30 people took part on the last day, with 100 participants over the three days. Local people got the chance to try out traditional hand sewing, embroidery and knitting, and canal style art. Most of the people taking part were born long after the canal closed, but were interested to learn more about it. The local residents are definitely keen to develop their craft skills to show and sell their work in the future.

Find out more about the workshops.