“Blackfriar’s Bridge” by George Seymour

Blackfriar’s Bridge

George Seymour

c. 1883-84

Source: “The Lower Thames —II,” 109

Image capture and formatting by George P. Landow.

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We shall not attempt to skip the bridge at Blackfriars. It is beautiful enough in itself, but in hideous proximity to one of those ghastly iron structures which only railway companies are privileged to build, and which, even to them, are only permitted in America and in England. In passing one ought to note that near the end of Blackfriars Bridge, and near the spot on which it is now proposed to build a fish market, there stood the theatre in which many of the plays of Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher, were first performed. Shakespeare himself must many a time have visited this neighbourhood, and doubtless has freciuently enough wandered round the spot on which in these days stands the office of the Times. Blaclrfriars, indeed, is rich in literary associations, and in spite of the iron horror aforetold, to skip it were impossible. Here, according to Pope, was the centre of the Empire of Dulness, for here the Fleet river, now running underground, empties itself into the Thames; and it was

"Where Fleet ditch, with disoinhoguing streams,
Eolls its large tribute of dead dogs to Thames"

that Pope exhorted his enemies to leap in and con- tend with each other amidst the mud. The Fleet Prison was near at hand, and there the satirist had the satisfaction of knowing that many of his critics and more of his would-be rivals sojourned. [114]

Bibliography

Moira, G. E., and F. Lynn Jenkins. “The Lower Thames —II.” The Magazine of Art. 7: (1883-84): 107-114. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of Toronto Library. Web. 8 November 2014

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Last modified 14 November 2014