Braunstone Gate Bridge

Infobox_Bridge
bridge_name= Bowstring Bridge

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caption=Braunstone Gate Bridge showing lattice girders
official_name=Braunstone Gate Bridge
carries=Great Central Railway (1899-1969)
Great Central Way (until 1997)
crosses=River Soar and Western Boulevard, Leicester
locale= Braunstone Gate
maint=
id=Bridge 374
designer =
design= Bowstring
material = Steel
spans =
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below=
traffic=
open= 1898
closed=
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The Braunstone Gate Bridge (also known as the Bowstring Bridge) was a railway bridge carrying the Great Central Railway, and later a public footpath and cycleway, over Western Boulevard and the River Soar in Leicester, England. The bridge is in a poor state of repair following years of neglect by the local authority which has proposed to demolish the structure to facilitate the redevelopment of De Montfort University. The Council has claimed that the costs of restoration are prohibitive.

History

The Great Central Railway, which opened in 1899, crossed Leicester on a 190ft wide Staffordshire blue brick viaduct, over a mile and a half long and linked by a series of fine girder bridges. The network of bridges began to the north of the River Soar and included two "bowstring" style bridges. The first in Northgate Street was demolished in 1981 but the second, spanning Braunstone Gate, still remains. Known locally as the "Bowstring Bridge", it contains steel lattice girders of 175 feet and 136 feet in length, and weighs in excess of 400 tons. [Leicester Mercury, "Railway's progress unstoppable", 9 September 2005, p. 16.] The bridge has been described as "unique" from an engineering point of view as the main supports on either side are not parallel, meaning that the two supporting bowstrings had to be of different lengths. [Leicester Mercury, "Bowstring bridge is unique in many ways", 23 July 2005, p. 30.] The bridge was built by Henry Lovatt of Wolverhampton and is one of the last surviving girder structures from the Great Central's London Extension. [ [http://prints.leics.gov.uk/low.php?xp=media&xm=671402 Leicester City Council: Braunstone Gate Bridge, Leicester] ]

Following the closure of the Great Central in 1969, much of the railway infrastructure in Leicester was demolished. A surviving length of viaduct from Duns Lane to Glen Parva, including the Bowstring Bridge, was purchased by Leicester City Council in the 1970s for a token payment. The Council subsequently received a Manpower Services Commission grant to engage craftsmen to supervise young people painting the bridge in green and cream colours. [Leicester Mercury, "Is varsity plan a bridge too far?", 18 January 2008, p. 16.] The bridge, viaduct and land nearby, including the Pump and Tap pub, were later sold to De Montfort University whose university campus adjoins the site of the Bowstring Bridge. The bridge was used to carry the Great Central Way, a footpath and cycleway following part of the disused railway line, until 1997 when the demolition of the adjoining Kirby & West dairy forced the cycleway onto the road. The section of the viaduct north of the site (including the Bowstring Bridge) went unmaintained and subsequently became derelict. [http://www.leicestercivicsociety.org.uk/resources/LeicesterCitizenDecember2005.pdf Leicester Civic Society, "Leicester Citizen: The Bowstring Bridge" by Stuart Bailey, (no. 8) December 2005] ]

In 2002, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs refused an application to list the bridge as a monument to the city's industrial heritage. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/4648913.stm BBC News, "City bridge faces wrecker's ball", 4 July 2005. []

Proposed demolition

De Montfort redevelopment

In 2005, Leicester City Council proposed to demolish the bridge to allow De Montfort University to expand its John Sandford sports hall and build a swimming pool in a £6 million development. [Leicester Mercury, "Bridge development plan 'is cultural vandalism'", 5 July 2005, p. 8.] ] The Council claimed that the bridge had to be removed as a report revealed that it could only support its own weight and would not last another year without major repairs. According to the report, the 108-year old bridge was "approaching the end of a normal life span of 120 years" and could have lasted "long into the future if only a pro-active maintenance strategy had been in place. Unfortunately, lack of funding and the demise of this section of the railway are instrumental in the extremely poor condition of the structure components. The bridge, which once carried a railway, can only carry its own weight". The report estimated the costs of restoration at between £250,000 and £270,000.

Temporary reprieve

The bridge had a last-minute reprieve in July 2005 when, just before a meeting at which councillors were about to vote on its demolition, an email was sent to them by Richard Tilden-Smith of the heritage Great Central Railway urged them to postpone a decision until experts could examine the state of the bridge. He indicated that if the bridge were saved, it might still be possible to extend his organisation's operations through Leicester, with funding possibly coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The cabinet agreed to give the bridge more time. [Leicester Mercury, "Reprieved", 13 July 2005, p. 4.] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/4673107.stm BBC News, "Historic bridge decision delayed", 12 July 2005] ] Two weeks later, the heritage railway pulled out of talks with the Council, stating that the restoration works would be too expensive and would not fit in with the Council's timetable for the area. [Leicester Mercury, "Major blow in fight to save landmark bridge", 22 July 2005, p. 11.]

Application to stop-up highway

In October 2005, Leicester City Council released an engineer's report indicating that the bridge could only support its weight and would need £775,000 to keep it intact over the next three years. Full restoration would cost £2.5 million according to the report. [Leicester Mercury, "Bridge-rescue dream is fading", 6 October 2005, p. 17.] The Council planned to demolish the bridge by Summer 2006 but had to revise their plans once it was discovered that as the bridge was still classed as a public highway which used to carry the Great Central Way footpath, a formal extinguishing the highway would have to be obtained. This process would take up to a year. [Leicester Mercury, "Blunder gives bridge reprieve", 10 January 2006, p. 13.] By March 2008 the order had still not yet been granted and considerable local opposition against the plans was manifesting itself on the internet with more than 2,500 people joining a campaign on the Facebook website, and a further 1,200 signing a petition on the 10 Downing Street website. [Leicester Mercury, "New hope in battle to save old bridge", 18 March 2008, p. 8.]

The court hearing for the stopping-up order took place at 2.15pm on 4 June 2008 at Leicester Magistrates' Court in Pocklington's Walk. Representatives from the Ramblers Association, The Victorian Society, The Footpath Association, The Civic Society and Leicestershire Industrial History Society were present in Court 5. The Council applied for the order using Section 116 of the Highways Act 1980 to have 410 metres of the bridge closed, thereby avoiding the public enquiry that would have been necessary if Section 118 (also concerned with closure) had been used. [Leicester Mercury, "The battle of the bridge", 4 June 2008, p. 10.] The hearing was adjourned until 17 June when the application will be heard by a district judge and a date will be set for a full hearing of the case. [Leicester Mercury, "Show of solidarity to save pub and bridge", 5 June 2008, p. 2.]

External links

* [http://www.gcrleicester.info/html/braunstone_gate.html Photographs of the Bowstring Bridge and surrounding area]
* [http://www.save-bowstringbridge.co.uk/ Save the Bowstring Bridge campaign website]
* [http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/LeicesterBridge/ Petition on Downing Street website]
* [http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/greatcentralrlwy/ Petition to reinstate all of the Great Central Railway on Downing Street website]

References