Charing Cross railway bridge to see renovation work impacting Southeastern
Hungerford bridge outside Charing Cross station is to see work begin on renovations and refurbishment by Network Rail.
Scaffolding will begin to rise around the structure this month before work commences including repainting the structure from this spring.
Overall the project will last until winter 2028 as Network Rail undertake work around a bridge set to remain in use for Southeastern services – mostly.
Closures at certain times such as late evenings and weeks are likely during the next three years.
Plan
The initial phase will sees work on spans on the southern side of the Thames from this month until January 2026. The following phase sees main refurbishment undertaken until of winter 2028.
The current bridge is 160 years old and saw a bridge designed by Sir John Hawkshaw replacing an earlier 1845 design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Some of the chains from Brunel’s bridge were moved to Bristol to build the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Adjacent pedestrian bridges will be unaffected by the rail bridge upgrade. Those were built for the millennium and credited as a major catalyst of south bank rejuvenation since the late 1990s.
They replaced grotty old bridges encased in mesh that were hardly inviting to pedestrians. Just as well mistakes like that aren’t being repeated.
Fortunately organisations like TfL and Network Rail are far more enlightened these days.
No repeating those silly mistakes.
