Kew Bridge 2005

Historical Accounts

From the Gentleman's Magazine

[1772, p.400.]

The buildings in Kew Gardens are deservedly the admiration of all foreigners; and, among them, none deserves greater applause than the beautiful mosque, the plan of which (see the plate -note: not included) was drawn and executed by W. Chambers, Esq., member of the Imperial Academy of Arts at Florence, and of the Royal Academy of Architecture at Paris. The body of the building, according to the architect's description, consists of an octagon salon in the centre, flanked with two cabinets, finishing with one large dome and two small ones. The large dome is crowned with a crescent, and its upright part contains twenty-eight little arches, which give light to the salon. On the three front sides of the central octagon are three doors, giving entrance to the building; over each of which there is an Arabic inscription in golden characters, extracted from the Alcoran by Dr. Moreton, of which the following is the explanation:

"Ne sit coactio in Religione,
Non est Deus ullus prseter Deum.
Ne ponatis Deo similitudinem."

The minarets are placed at each end of the principal building, and the architect's design in them, and in the whole exterior part of the building itself, seems to have been to collect the principal peculiarities of the Turkish architecture, which he has very happily effected.

[1789, Part II., p. 1101.]

In honour of the King's birthday, June 4, 1783, the first stone, being the west salient angle of Kew Bridge, was laid by M. D. Sanders, Esq., proprietor of a bridge at that time building at Walton, higher up the river. The ceremony was attended by Robert Tunstall, Esq., proprietor, Messrs. James Payne, sen. and jun., the architects, master-workmen, and others. A large company of neighbouring gentlemen and friends of the proprietor were entertained in commemoration of the event. Pending the summer, two piers for support of the centre arch were completed. The following year the proprietor thought proper to open a subscription for a tontine, the benefit of the sole property ultimately reverting to himself or representatives. Every saving was now to take place, the plans and elevations were new modelled, the intended width of the road diminished, the elevations stripped of their picturesque ornaments, the bold Doric entablature and the rusticated fronts pillaged from the semicircular abutment-arches; these arches were intended to support attics, adapted to the purpose of the toll-house and other uses. Finally, to save expense, it became necessary to build the land-arches and wing-walls that conduct to the body of the bridge with brick, a material neither beautiful of itself in point of colour nor durable, like stone. The foundations, piers, arch-stones, and all stone employed in this fabric, as high as the torus cap that bears the plinth of the balustrade, is brought from quarries at Purbeck. The compactness of texture, and other requisites, evinces a material well adapted to aquatic buildings, the masonry and other workmanship well performed. . . .

On September 22, 1789, the anniversary of the King's coronation, the bridge was opened to the public; the period commemorated by a superb entertainment at the expense of Robert Tunstall, Esq. It was the intention of the architects to erect an obelisk, supporting a large globe-lamp containing reflectors, facing the bridge, by the side of the footpath that leads from the Star and Garter to Brentford; a picturesque approach from the western road, a most needful protection to the passenger, and in other respects not divested of use. BOCCA DELLA VERITA.