Queen's Bridge, Anne Street/ Bridge End, Belfast, Co Antrim

Queen's Bridge

Queen's Bridge is a five-arched road bridge spanning the River Lagan between Anne Street on the County Antrim side and Bridge End on the County Down side in Belfast. Built between 1840 and 1843 in finely dressed Newry granite, it was designed by John Fraser, County Surveyor for Down, and Thomas Jackson Woodhouse, former County Surveyor for Antrim. It replaced the Long Bridge, a 17th-century structure of 21 arches that had stood on the same alignment since the 1680s. The bridge was widened in 1885 by Josiah C. Bretland, Surveyor to Belfast Corporation, using wrought iron and cast iron, and ornate cast-iron lamp standards were added at the same time.

Architecture and Construction

The body of the bridge is constructed throughout in finely dressed Newry granite. The abutments are of dressed blocks laid to courses with quarter-round quoins and deep moulded copings. The piers are of similar granite blockwork and extend outward to form rounded cutwaters. A string course of rusticated blocks with tooled margins runs along the piers at spring level and around the tops of the cutwaters. Flanking the abutments are pilastered buttresses of vee-jointed blocks laid to regular courses, surmounted with ornate cornices. Wing walls curve outward from the abutments and finish in bracketed terminals to the footpath railings, with similar detailing throughout.

The five arches are of identical size and segmental profile, with vee-jointed voussoirs and masonry blockwork soffits. The spandrels, also vee-jointed and regularly coursed, are step-jointed into the voussoirs. The cutwaters are surmounted by pairs of original partly-attached clustered columns, subsequently used to support the cantilevered footpaths added in 1885. The cornices at the tops of these columns are detailed to match those on the abutment pilasters. The navigable channel is the second arch from the County Down side and is marked by a large arrow attached to the crown of its arch.

The 1885 Widening

The parapets as widened in 1885 comprise metal lattice girders with a wide metal handrail across their tops. The ends of these girders are supported on riveted metal beams cantilevered out from the tops of the abutment pilasters and cutwater columns. The handrails terminate at both ends in dressed granite piers, which form an upward continuation of the terminal piers of the out-curving wing walls. Metal brackets are affixed to the base of the railing on its downstream outside face to carry pipes. Pipes encased in a metal conduit are also carried across the base of the upstream parapet.

At regular intervals along the handrails, the line is broken by hollow metal pedestals positioned in line with the piers. The road faces of these pedestals are embellished with Belfast Corporation's coat of arms, though this is missing from three pedestals on the downstream side. Their outer faces carry recessed panels reading "Widened / 1885", and the chamfered tops bear the maker's name: "Gregg, Sons & Phenix / Iron Founders / Belfast".

Each pedestal is surmounted by an ornate cast-iron lamp standard. These were originally gas-lit but have long since been electrified. Wrapped around the base of each column are four intertwined scaled fish, and each bears the maker's name "Geo. Smith & Co Sun Foundry Glasgow". There are 16 standards in all, arranged as eight along each side — six over the piers, two over the abutments, and two at the wing wall terminal piers. Three tall electric lamps are also positioned along each side.

Approaches and Setting

On the downstream approach at the County Down end, a continuation of the parapet railing runs over a low squared rubble granite sidewall. The railing terminates in a pedestal identical to those on the bridge proper but without a lamp standard. Let into this section of railing are two additional matching pedestals, which do not carry lamp standards but instead form piers for a wrought-iron gate that formerly gave access to steps — now removed — leading down to the former Queen's Quay. This section of the quay is now cut off from the rest by the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge.

The upstream approach from the County Down end is bounded by a plain regularly coursed granite block wall. Its terminal pier carries a rectangular bronze plaque commemorating the opening of the Laganside Walkway on 4 June 1992. A ramped footpath runs down to the walkway along the river's edge. A circular plaque at this end also records the bridge's construction in 1841–43 as a replacement of the Long Bridge of 1688–1841.

The upstream approach on the County Antrim side also features a short length of granite walling, but this has been truncated to facilitate access to a paved area over what was originally Canal Quay. The downstream approach wall on the County Antrim side has been removed entirely to allow access to a walkway along the former Donegall Quay. At each end of the downstream side, a wide flight of stone steps leads down from the quayside walkways to the water's edge.

The flat deck carries four lanes of traffic and a footpath along each side. Pedestrian and vehicular traffic are separated by a modern single-bar tubular metal railing carried on cast-metal posts mounted on a dwarf concrete wall.

The bridge is bounded at both ends by walkways along former quays. The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, a two-span steel structure built in 1966, lies a short distance downstream. On the corner of the upstream approach on the County Antrim side stands a 19.5-metre-high stainless steel and bronze sculpture entitled Harmony of Belfast — also variously known as Angel of Harmony, Nuala with the Hula, and Thing with the Ring — by Scottish artist Andy Scott, erected in 2007.

Historical Background

Prior to the 1840s, the River Lagan was spanned at this point by the Long Bridge, the lowest crossing point on the river. Erected in the 1680s, it comprised 21 arches spanning 840 feet in total. Including its long approach from Ballymacarrett on the County Down side, it was almost a mile long — hence its name. However, at around 20 feet wide, it was too narrow for the growing volume of traffic, and by 1830 it was considered unfit for purpose, the year in which its replacement was announced. It still appeared as the Long Bridge on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map.

Charles Lanyon, County Surveyor for Antrim, reported to the spring assizes of the County Antrim Grand Jury in March 1838 that he regretted the proposed new bridge was to be located at the end of Anne Street rather than High Street, as he considered the approach roads too narrow. The bridge's location remained unchanged, on the line of the Long Bridge. In a further report to the Antrim Grand Jury's summer assizes in July 1838, Lanyon noted that work could not begin until the loan promised by the Board of Works to the County Grand Juries was forthcoming.

Work finally commenced in 1840. The contract was awarded by the Board of Works to Francis Ritchie and Son on the basis of their tendered price of £27,000. The bridge was to comprise five arches, each of 50 feet span and 10 feet rise. As the bridge straddled the counties of Antrim and Down, its construction was to be supervised jointly by Lanyon (as Surveyor for Antrim) and John Fraser, Down County Surveyor, with completion anticipated within upwards of three years.

By March 1841, the Long Bridge had been demolished and preparations made for the coffer dams for the new bridge's foundations. Even at this stage, debate continued over the design and location. A proposal had been made to ease the gradient by raising the central arch, producing a bridge with an ascending and descending deck, but this was rejected in favour of the existing horizontal deck design. By July 1842, one of the arches had been keyed in and completion was anticipated by the end of the year. The bridge was not, however, opened to traffic until January 1843 — slightly late, but on budget. It acquired its present name, Queen's Bridge, to commemorate Queen Victoria's visit to Belfast in the summer of 1849, and is cited as such on the 1858 Ordnance Survey map and subsequent editions.

The bridge is ascribed in most publications to Lanyon and Fraser. However, in a letter to the Belfast Newsletter in March 1885, John Fraser — grandson and namesake of the Down Surveyor — claimed that Lanyon only came on the scene "when the bridge was in progress", and that his grandfather "has been represented all along to be the engineer for the present bridge". This is supported by the fact that Lanyon was unable to effect any change to the bridge's location even after raising concerns in 1838; had he been involved from the outset, he would presumably not have been raising objections at that stage. Surveyor Fraser himself was careful not to claim sole credit: in his report to the Down Grand Jury in July 1840 he named the bridge's design as the work of himself and "Mr Woodhouse, the experienced and talented Engineer". This was Thomas Jackson Woodhouse, County Surveyor for Antrim from 1834 to 1836, who then returned to England and was replaced by Lanyon; Woodhouse is best known for Great Victoria Street Railway Station. Lanyon himself resigned his post in 1842 to enter private practice and was therefore not in post at the time of the bridge's opening in 1843.

By the early 1860s, the bridge was struggling to cope with traffic volumes, much as its predecessor had done. Henry Smyth, Surveyor for County Down, reported to the County Down assizes in 1862 that the bridge should be widened from its then width of 30 feet to 42 feet, with a 6-foot cantilevered footpath added in metal on each side. He suggested widening the road to 44 feet to match the width of the approaches, which had been widened as part of the 1840s works, and proposed two 8-foot-wide footpaths, bringing the total width to 60 feet. He also advocated widening in stone to match the existing structure. In the event, it was Josiah C. Bretland, Belfast Borough Surveyor from 1884 to 1903, who carried out the widening in 1885, using cantilevered metal girders and new lattice metal parapets in place of the original stone ones, and fitting the ornate cast-iron lamp standards made by the Sun Foundry, Glasgow. The footpaths as built were considerably wider than the 6 feet originally proposed, and the bridge's overall width is now approximately 62 feet. It is shown in its widened form on the 1902 Ordnance Survey map. Bretland also designed the present Albert Bridge, which opened in 1890.

In 1966 the Queen's Bridge was augmented by the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, a two-span steel structure a short distance downstream. This allowed the four vehicular lanes of the Queen's Bridge to operate one-way, in the direction of the city centre.