Hammersmith Bridge

This is the second bridge to cross the Thames at Hammersmith. The first opened in 1827 but, by the 1870s, was no longer able to sustain the weight of traffic. The current bridge was designed by Joseph Bazalgette and opened in 1887. By photographing against the light, Sandra Flett has deftly emphasised the elegance of the suspension bridge structure.

Flett was a semi-professional photographer who lived in Chiswick. She could see the Thames from her house and wrote: ‘We have lived near the river for years and it has become part of the background of our lives’. For her, the river was a ‘geographical backbone’ linking the disparate parts of London.