UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

barge, bridge, river, pier, rowing boat, suspension bridge, steamer, warehouse.

The published titles all include the site, 'Hungerford', but with slight variations, as follows:


'Hungerford Bridge' (1863, R.A.) 1
'Old Hungerford' (1871, Ellis & Green). 2
'Old Hungerford' (1870s, Whistler). 3
'Hungerford Bridge' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)). 4
'Old Hungerford Bridge' (Flemish Gallery, 1874). 5
'Old Hungerford Bridge' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 6


It is not certain that references to another Hungerford subject concern the same etching. These are as follows:

'The oyster smacks old Hungerford Market' (1875, Whistler). 7
'Oyster Smacks' (1877, Whistler). 8


The original title of the etching as published in 1871, 'Old Hungerford' could mean both the bridge and the market, both of which are conspicuous in the scene. This is a slightly different meaning to that published in Whistler's 1874 exhibition catalogue, 'Old Hungerford Bridge', but it is the latter that was adopted by later cataloguers.

In the middle distance is a suspension-bridge, with towers resting on massive piers, and to left, the roadway running up to the bridge is supported on tall piles. A pier runs out from the shore at left, below the piles, to the landing-float at Hungerford Pier, where steamboats are clustered.

The iron columns supporting the Charing Cross railway-bridge are visible through the bridge, as are the warehouses and chimneys of the buildings along the far bank.

In the foreground there is a pole in the bottom right corner, and planks on the beach beside it, with barges and rowboats to left. In the river there are more barges, including a Thames barge with sail furled, and a side-wheel paddle steamer.

In later states the towers of the Houses of Parliament appeared in the distance at left. See STATES.

Thomas wrote that this showed both 'the old bridge and the new iron bridge for the railway to Charing Cross'. Wedmore described it: 'Looking down on the Thames, with several barges and river steamers by Hungerford Pier. In the middle distance the old Suspension Bridge, now removed to Clifton, and by it the new railway bridge to Charing Cross Station. The distance is a view of the Borough.' 9

John Wykeham Archer (1808-1864) painted a watercolour of Hungerford Bridge from Savoy Wharf in 1861. 10

This is one of numerous etchings of London bridges by Whistler, dating from 1859 to 1889, including Old Westminster Bridge [47], Vauxhall Bridge [75], Westminster Bridge in Progress [77], Chelsea Bridge and Church [102], London Bridge [172], Old Putney Bridge [185], Little Putney Bridge [186], Old Battersea Bridge [188] and Charing Cross Bridge [348].