The bronze medal from the royal opening is still in its original leather box. The bridge's heritage manager found it online.
Tower Bridge has bought a bronze medal that was handed out on Queen Victoria’s behalf at the bridge’s royal opening, and it plans to put the medal on public display.
The purchase comes as the bridge marks 140 years since work started on its foundations in September 1886.
Dirk Bennett, the bridge’s heritage and interpretation manager, found the medal on eBay and bought it for Tower Bridge. The price has not been disclosed.
He said the medal is special because it is still in its original leather presentation box. The box is lined in deep blue and has gold lettering that explains what the medal commemorates. “It’s quite rare to find one of these medals in its box,” he said.
One side shows Queen Victoria between her son Prince Albert, later King Edward VII, and his wife Princess Alexandra. As Prince of Wales, he would have presented the medal to a specially invited guest at the opening on 30 June 1894. The other side carries the date of the opening above a picture of the bridge.
A Tower Bridge spokesperson said they hoped to use the medal to tell the bridge’s story “in the near future”.
The foundations took three years. A team of six divers did the dangerous work of digging 6m to 8m into the bed of the Thames. Building the bridge itself then took another five years.
First, huge iron structures shaped like wells, called caissons, were lowered into the river. Divers climbed down inside them and dug out the riverbed so the caissons could sink further, to a depth of around 8m. Once the caissons were in place, steam cranes tipped in stone and concrete to form the piers that support the towers.
Bennett said the divers took turns on two-hour shifts, and that their suit and weights together weighed about as much as the divers did. A Victorian diving suit like the ones they would have worn is already on show at the bridge, beside plaques carrying the divers’ names.
No date has been given. Tower Bridge plans to put it on public display and hopes to use it to tell the bridge's story in the near future.
One side shows Queen Victoria with Prince Albert, later King Edward VII, and Princess Alexandra. The other shows the date of the royal opening above a picture of the bridge.
The foundations took three years from September 1886. Building the bridge then took five more years, and it was opened on 30 June 1894.
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