Weeks of disruption ahead for road users as Wandsworth Bridge closes for ‘vital’ repairs
DRIVERS and bus passengers have been warned of major disruption this summer in south-west London when a Thames bridge is closed for repairs.
Wandsworth Bridge will be shut to road traffic for about 10 weeks from July 24 — the start of the school holidays — for “essential” maintenance. Pedestrians and cyclists who dismount will still be able to use the crossing.
Wandsworth council said checks had revealed that some weight-bearing parts of the 83-year-old bridge needed to be replaced. A failure to carry out the “critical” repairs could result in longerterm closures, it said.
But there are concerns that the shutdown — which is likely to extend into October — will exacerbate longstanding traffic problems caused by the ongoing closure of Hammersmith Bridge. Vehicles have been unable to cross the river at Hammersmith since April 2019.
Tory party chairman Greg Hands, the MP for Chelsea and Fulham, told the Standard: “This 10-week closure by Labour-run Wandsworth will be a hammer blow to my constituents, already swamped with diverted traffic from Hammersmith Bridge and dealing with Hammersmith and Fulham council’s controversial Fulham traffic scheme.”
The closure of Wandsworth Bridge will see additional traffic diverted onto Putney Bridge — already busier due to the Hammersmith closure — and Battersea Bridge. The 424 and C3 buses that use Wandsworth Bridge will be diverted, though Transport for London has yet to make clear its plans.
Wandsworth said the timing of the work had been co-ordinated with TfL and Hammersmith and Fulham council to cause minimum disruption, and took into account other roadworks planned in south and west London.
Traffic levels are normally lighter during the six-week school summer holidays, which mostly start on July 21.
An initial phase of works began today, when the southbound bus lane and the northbound cycle lane were closed. The bridge will remain open to all forms of transport until July 24.
Wandsworth leader Simon Hogg said: “Unfortunately, a repair job on this scale to an important river crossing means some degree of disruption is unavoidable...but we have worked hard to keep this to the absolute minimum. We have also ensured the bridge will remain open to pedestrians and people who ride bicycles.
“We are giving people as much advance warning as we can ahead of July’s closure so that they have plenty of time to plan alternative routes or look at using other forms of transport.”
The council is sending letters to about 24,000 households on both sides of the river. Warning signs will be placed on lamp posts on all approaches in Wandsworth and Hammersmith and Fulham. Digital signs will also be used.
Hammersmith and Fulham council, which owns Hammersmith Bridge, last month submitted a business case to Government for the full reopening of the bridge, but said details were confidential.
ON Thursday, the Camden arts venue, the Roundhouse, opens a new campus to help young people turn their creativity into a career. It’s a massive boon for the area, and for the kids, who will have a chance to develop their creative skills into something life-changing.
International artists including actor Daniel Kaluuya, musician Little Simz and comedy writer Jack Rooke all got a helping hand at the Roundhouse, and now more will have the opportunity. Roundhouse Works will allow the organisation to double the number of young people it helps to 15,000 a year.
This is great news, right? Undoubtedly. But it also highlights the stark reality of declining opportunities for young people elsewhere when it comes to the arts in this country
Over the past decade, the arts’ place on the school curriculum has been diluted and devalued. Ministers have scoffed at its importance alongside
science, tech and maths. And that has had an impact. Access to the arts for state-school children has declined catastrophically. This needs to be reversed.
The creative industries are a huge part of the UK economy, bringing in billions every year. UK arts are respected globally but that respect can erode quickly.
The Roundhouse didn’t wait for the Government to address this timebomb — the fear is they would be waiting indefinitely — but established a centre that values the creativity of young people. They did it by talking to those young people who didn’t want another performance space but one that would help them develop their skills instead.
And while arts organisations should be developing the artists of the future, the Government cannot outsource all the responsibility for arts education to them. Many are already at their limits when it comes to funding.
Artists need time, space and guidance to develop. They also need places where they can build networks, especially if they didn’t go to schools and universities that already have them in place. Following the Coronation, the strength of British arts has been admired around the world once more, but where will we be come the next Coronation?
We need to invest in young people, and they need to see that society thinks it’s worth investing in them and their creativity, to keep that beacon shining brightly in the future.