Hungerford Bridge

This is the original Hungerford footbridge designed and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. A toll crossing, it joined Hungerford Market on the north bank of the Thames with Lambeth on the south. Within fifteen years it was gone. Bridge and market had been sold to the South Eastern Railway Company, which replaced it with a rail crossing with footpaths either side. The suspension chains were re-used for Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.

By contrasting the barges in the foreground with the Brunel's bridge, Fox Talbot highlights the technological changes of the 19th century. Fox Talbot was one of the founders of modern photography. His technological breakthough was to create negatives, which in turn allowed multiple positive prints to be made. This advance in image making would dominate photography for the next 150 years, until the dawn of digital.