Cracks were found in the iconic, Sir Joseph Bazalgette-designed, 1887 suspension bridge and it had to shut.
Five years without a major thoroughfare across the Thames. Five years in which emergency services have had to use another bridge. Five years of vehicles using longer routes. Five years of jams and congestion on nearby roads. Five years that have seen the estimated cost of repairing the bridge soar, from £40 million to £250 million ($50.6 million to $316 million). Five years, and it is still unclear when the bridge will reopen to traffic or if it ever will.
I apologise for the repetition but I want it to sink in. Name another city, another country, that would take so long to repair such an essential structure, one smack bang in the capital, that before its closure was used heavily day and night, linking the south bank of the Thames in west London with the north.
Everything, utterly everything, that is wrong with Britain today is represented in the Hammersmith Bridge saga. Five years, which make a mockery of the local campaigners and their "SOS Appeal" to have the bridge restored.
In modern Britain, it seems, SOS means five years.
Yet this is a nation that holds itself out as cutting edge, at the global forefront, a place in which any right-minded, ambitious, go-getting person or fund would want to invest. Really? Not when we’re incapable making a bridge safe to use.
Worse, Hammersmith Bridge is not about leaders who can’t, it’s symbolic of won’t – testament to a political class that says one thing and does the other, who claims it cares but doesn’t. For Hammersmith Bridge read HS2, Post Office, contaminated blood, MPs’ expenses, PPE, potholes and all the other scandalous failures of recent times. They’re about, in their different ways, failure to lead, to accept responsibility.
Name another city, another country, that would take so long to repair such an essential structure
Above all, it’s about a country that is mired in the past, unwilling to confront the reality of the present and prepare for the future.
For more than a century, Hammersmith Bridge stood as a jewel of brilliant British engineering and innovation, evidence of the genius of Bazalgette who created London’s sewer system and helped eradicate cholera from the city (ironically the Thames is polluted again because his sewers can no longer cope and no one had the foresight to invest, rather like his bridge).
One of the world’s oldest suspension bridges, Hammersmith is made from wrought iron and wood. It’s 210m long and 13m wide.
It's Grade 2 listed, making it deserving of protection. That translates, in practice, to "the bridge must be preserved at all costs even though it is no longer fit for purpose" (cue the NHS if another example is required, of this British attitude that decrees the past is to be pickled and saved, at the expense of the current).
It would be relatively easy to disassemble and rebuild it elsewhere as a foot and cycle bridge, and to replace it with a modern, suitable for all-comers, structure. But that isn’t contemplated, instead it must remain where it is.
The 19th-century Hammersmith Bridge is a famous sight on London's Thames. PA
In a bizarre move, when London local government was shaken up in 1985, ownership of the bridges crossing the Thames was transferred to nearby councils. Even though they were usually short of cash and would struggle to properly maintain and repair a bridge, it became theirs.
In this case, it meant Hammersmith & Fulham council, which, while comprising some of London’s smartest neighbourhoods in its borders, also had some of the most socially deprived. The borough would always have to weigh up the choice: spend a packet on a bridge or use it for welfare. And so it proved.
While it was owned by the council, the bridge was run by Transport for London, or TfL, part of mayor Sadiq Khan’s empire. Except that Khan does not possess an empire as such, he is an emperor without clothes. He has limited powers, not much money. Even though he is anti-car in other parts of London, Khan has said: “I do want that bridge reopened for vehicles.”
Khan wanting something and Khan getting it are not the same. He can say it but it’s not up to him. Meanwhile, he is surrounded by those who are opposed to the car virtually everywhere and have contemplated turning Hammersmith into a cycle and pedestrian-only link and the "Garden Bridge that London never got", a reference to a green project that crashed due to its cost.
On the south side of the bridge is Richmond council. They have limited interest in it – the bridge is at the far end of the borough, if it was Richmond Bridge in Richmond town centre, they would stop at nothing to get it repaired. They would not rest; as it is, they sleep easily knowing that many of their residents are left to cope with the consequences of a broken bridge.
A warning sign on Hammersmith Bridge, which was closed to traffic in 2019. Reuters
The government could pay for all of it but won’t. Again, if Hammersmith was elsewhere, in Wakefield, say, it would have reopened long ago because that would have conformed with the "levelling-up" agenda. As it is, Hammersmith is a fine example of the other half of the levelling-up equation, which is levelling down.
Similarly, it’s in west London whereas if it was in the east it might have been repaired sooner – the more disadvantaged east is where public capital expenditure is heading.
So, the government’s plan is a third each – from Hammersmith & Fulham, TfL and HM Treasury. But none of them are in any rush and if they have the cash to hand, they would rather be seen using it on other things.
To overcome the lack of funding, one idea that appears to have gained traction is for a toll. There are precedents for tolls paying for roads but they are brand new roads, not ones that have been there for centuries.
There is no one knocking heads together, nobody driving and forcing. The Prime Minister? Hammersmith & Fulham are a Labour council, Richmond is Lib-Dem. So, no votes there, then, despite how committed he sounds and how hard he smiles.
I asked a senior office in the Royal Engineers, the British Army’s support division, if they could build a new bridge. "In an afternoon," he said. What weight would it bear? "As heavy as you wish." How long it would last? "As long you want it."
But, he said, they could not build a new Hammersmith Bridge. Why not? "Too political."
He’s dead right there. On it goes, this journey of ineptitude. It’s not that they can’t repair the bridge, it’s that they won’t – and that makes it doubly shameful.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
In Windhoek, Namibia - Top two teams qualify for the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, which starts on March 4.
UAE fixtures
Thursday February 8, v Kenya; Friday February 9, v Canada; Sunday February 11, v Nepal; Monday February 12, v Oman; Wednesday February 14, v Namibia; Thursday February 15, final
Ireland (15-1):
Ireland (15-1): Rob Kearney; Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale; Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack Conan, Sean O'Brien, Peter O'Mahony; James Ryan, Quinn Roux; Tadhg Furlong, Rory Best (capt), Cian Healy
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Ultan Dillane, Josh van der Flier, John Cooney, Joey Carbery, Jordan Larmour
5pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Purebred Arabian Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer) 5.30pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Cup Conditions (PA) Dh 200,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Winked, Connor Beasley, Abdallah Al Hammadi 6pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Cup Listed (TB) Dh 380,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Boerhan, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard 6.30pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Group 3 (PA) Dh 500,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: AF Alwajel, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel 7pm: Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan National Day Jewel Crown Group 1 (PA) Dh 5,000,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Messi, Pat Dobbs, Timo Keersmaekers 7.30pm: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Racing Festival Handicap (PA) Dh 150,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Harrab, Ryan Curatolo, Jean de Roualle 8pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 100,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AF Alareeq, Connor Beasley, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
England 228-7, 50 overs
N Sciver 51; J Goswami 3-23
India 219, 48.4 overs
P Raut 86, H Kaur 51; A Shrubsole 6-46
England won by nine runs
Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
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Check results within 48 hours on the DHA app under ‘Lab Results’ and then ‘Patient Services’
The Vines - In Miracle Land
Two stars
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based:Dubai
Founders:Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector:Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees:4
All or Nothing
Amazon Prime
Four stars
Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
SPEC SHEET
Display: 10.9" Liquid Retina IPS, 2360 x 1640, 264ppi, wide colour, True Tone, Apple Pencil support
Chip: Apple M1, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 64/256GB storage; 8GB RAM
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, Smart HDR
Video: 4K @ 25/25/30/60fps, full HD @ 25/30/60fps, slo-mo @ 120/240fps
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR, Centre Stage; full HD @ 25/30/60fps
Audio: Stereo speakers
Biometrics: Touch ID
I/O: USB-C, smart connector (for folio/keyboard)
Battery: Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi; up to 9 hours on cellular
