Centenary Day Celebrations- An Account by the Great Grandson of
Sir John Wolfe Barry
Published: 19 April 2011
Extracts from John Wolfe Barry’s account of his visit to Tower
Bridge's centenary year celebrations. John is the great
grandson of Sir John Wolfe Barry, the famous English Civil Engineer
who oversaw the construction of Tower Bridge. He
recently attended an event at Tower Bridge, along with his family,
to mark the completion of the 3 year restoration project.
Centenary of the opening of Tower Bridge, in the City of London,
attended by his Royal Highness, Prince Charles, Prince of
Wales.
30th June 1994
At 08.55 a.m. Natasha (my wife) and I left for London from
Surrey in our by now ageing Volkswagen Passat Car. This
bright red loyal vehicle with some 137, 000 miles already travelled
had now to convey us safely a further thirty or so miles on a
brilliant morning to the City of London. (We were) to
join approximately four hundred other guests of the Corporation of
London including H.R.H The Prince of Wales at a ceremony to unveil
a plaque commemorating the centenary of the opening of Tower
Bridge. This magnificent and famous landmark had been opened by the
then Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, on a similarly
brilliant day a hundred years before.
We travelled to London making good progress…negotiating the
narrow streets escorted by a police outrider, Natasha trying to
resist the temptation to acknowledge graciously the crowds in the
street. Over London Bridge and down past the “City Dungeon”
we drove before pulling up on the south side of Tower Bridge under
the watchful gaze of anxious looking police officers and a great
concourse of tourists and Londoners in their multi coloured summer
clothing.
This was indeed a brilliant scene as the freshly painted Bridge
dominated all, even the aging Royal yacht ‘Britannia’ which was
handsomely dressed overall and moored opposite the Tower of
London.
We were then escorted down two flights of steps to Potters Field
where…. HRH pulled a large lever similar to that used for opening
the Bridge, unveiling the commemorative plaque which had been
hidden behind the blue velvet and at the same time lifting the
massive bascules of the Bridge behind us. All turned to watch
as the road split and was lifted smoothly to a 60 degree angle one
hundred years exactly after a similar event had opened the
Bridge.
We were invited to watch HRH join his barge below Tower Bridge
from whence he would return to the Royal yacht for his lunch.
As he passed below the bridge on the north side of the river, the
bascules were lifted in salute to an angle of 86 degrees whereupon
there was more cheering…..
As we left Potters Field to rejoin the bus to Guildhall, some
American tourists approached us wide-eyed and said:-
“Were you with Prince Charles?”
“Yes” we replied.
“Well, Gee, how exciting, Can we take your picture?”
That was fine with us and afterwards, I gave them my card and said
that if they looked on the Bridge plaque, they would see the same
name, that of the original famous engineer who was responsible for
the Bridge design and indeed the reason we were celebrating today;
this caused great excitement and hopefully, in the American
expression, ‘made their day’.
….We took our leave and completed our gentle journey home
to Surrey to complete a tiring but thoroughly splendid and
most memorable day.