London Bridge is the modern crossing linking the City of London to Southwark over the River Thames, standing on a site first bridged by the Romans around 43 AD.
The medieval “Old London Bridge,” built by Peter of Colechurch between 1176 and 1209, once carried houses and shops and, for centuries, displayed the severed heads of traitors above its southern gate. That structure was replaced in 1831 by a stone bridge designed by John Rennie; when it began sinking under modern traffic in the 1960s, it was sold, dismantled, and rebuilt in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, while the current bridge opened on the original site in 1973.
Visitors often confuse it with the more elaborate, Victorian-era Tower Bridge just downstream — London Bridge is a functional, largely unadorned crossing best appreciated as a quick walk with river views rather than a standalone attraction.
