KEW BRIDGE
Robert Tunstall, son of Thomas and owner of both the ferries,
obtained permission under an Act of Parliament in 1757 to put
up the first Kew Bride. It was a wooden structure, built by
carpenter John Barnard, and opened in June 1759. It was the
only bridge across the Thames between Fulham and Kingston
and it was immensely popular- 3,000 people crossed on its
first day but it wasn't cheap, the toll for a coach and
four was 1s 6d (7.5p) and a foot passenger paid half a penny.
After a boat collided with, and damaged, the wooden bridge,
Robert Tunstall's son yet another Robert, and two partners
decided to replace it with a stone bridge. In 1784 they raised
£16,500 by setting up a 'tontine' (a financial scheme which
gives subscribers an annuity increasing as subscribes die off).
George III and 'a great concourse of carriages' inaugurated
the bridge designed by James Paine who had just completed
Richmond Bridge in 1789. Robert Tunstall sold the bridge by
auction to George Robinson, probably in 1824. Robinson died
in 1852 and his trustees sold the bridge in 1873 to a joint
Committee of the Corporation of London and the Metropolitan
Board of Works for £57,000, when it was made free of tolls.
This was much later than intended: an Act to abolish tolls
had been passed in 1869 and Kew Bridge was supposed to be
one of the first bridges to be freed, butt its proprietors
held out for too much money.
Since tolls were extremely unpopular, there was great
rejoicing when the bridge was freed. The tollgates were
placed on a brewer's dray and paraded around Brentford
and Kew Green.

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Last Updated: 21st NOVEMBER 2005