Westminster Bridge--[Labelye, Charles]

watercolour, pen and ink and pencil on paper, on several sheets joined to form a continuous strip (47.9 x 35cm. (folded); extending to 1474cm.), pen and ink scale at each end and beneath the drawings, the main designs pricked through (presumably having been transferred to these sheets from preliminary drawings), one section titled and dated 1736 in ink on the reverse, contemporary French mottled calf boards, upper cover with red morocco label, several sections detached at folds or becoming so, some spotting and stains, overall slight wear and loss at folds, covers worn and detached

Walker, R.J.B. Old Westminster Bridge. (London, 1979); Harris, E. and N. Savage. British Architectural Books and Writers 1556-1785. (Cambridge, 1990, pp.258-261); Colvin, H. A biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840. (Yale, 1995; 3rd ed., pp.590-592)

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
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An early proposal for a stone bridge across the river Thames at Westminster, comprising a series of highly finished architectural plans and drawings by the Swiss engineer Charles Labelye who was later appointed to build Westminster Bridge.

These fine scale drawings, which extend to over 14 metres (48 feet) in length, include an aerial view, side elevations of the bridge both in preliminary stages of construction and completed, and what appear to be early designs for his innovative caissons, which in themselves constituted an important breakthrough in bridge-building. The drawings are animated with figures of labourers working on the project, boats sailing beneath the arches, and pedestrians, carts, horses and carriages travelling over the bridge.

Labelye (1705-1781) came to England in 1725 where he joined a French masonic lodge, his sponsor being J.T. Desaguliers, also a Huguenot refugee. Little is known about his early years in England, but in 1734 he supplied maps and surveys of the Thames to a group of men who planned to put a Bill before Parliament for a new bridge; the following year Labelye surveyed the coast near Sandwich and his tidal calculations were incorporated in Hawksmoor's scheme for Westminster Bridge. In May 1736 Parliament passed 'An Act for Building a Bridge across the River Thames, from the New Palace Yard in the City of Westminster to the opposite Shore in the County of Surrey.'  In 1737 Labelye was included among five surveyors of the river, submitting one of the many plans for a cheaper bridge with the upper section in timber; on 10 May 1738 he was appointed engineer for the stone piers, as it had not been decided whether to finish the upper structure in stone or timber. The success of the stone piers however led to a decision in February 1740 to build the entire bridge of stone and in March Labelye presented a final design, giving thanks and acknowledgement to his chief supporter, the Earl of Pembroke. The subsidence of one pier in 1747, which delayed the project, led to much ridicule and derision by British architects, who were jealous that a foreign architect had been awarded the prominent project to build Westminster Bridge. The most outspoken British architect was Batty Langley who published a pamphlet in 1748 calling Labelye a "Swiss imposter" and which included an engraved plate depicting Labelye hanging from a gallows beneath one of the arches of the bridge in front of the sinking pier. These attacks did not sway the Commissioners who awarded Labelye £2000 in 1751 "for his great fidelity and extraordinary labour and attendances, skill and diligence." Unfortunately for Labelye his patron the Earl of Pembroke died later that year and with his own health suffering he decided to leave his rivals in London and in 1752 he moved to France, taking his original drawings and designs with him. He built himself a house just outside Paris in Passy where he died in 1770.

"[Westminster Bridge] was the first stone bridge to be built over the Thames since London Bridge in the thirteenth century. When it opened in 1750 there was nothing comparable to it anywhere; not only was it the longest bridge constructed entirely of stone over a tidal river with its piers standing continuously in water but it was also the first in which caissons were employed to lay the foundations beneath the river bed." (Harris). Labelye's bridge lasted over 100 years and was replaced by a new bridge in 1854-62.