16.6.15

Another contentious bridge proposal in London, this time from 1963



The Crystal Span was proposed for Vauxhall Bridge in the 60s by the Glass Age Development Committee. I first came across it here. Looking like a Cruise Liner it is a proposal for a living bridge with shops houses hotels and so on. The Glass Age Development Committee was established in 1937 by Pilkington to promote the use of glass as a building material in the United Kingdom. It commissioned designs for many large-scale schemes, none of which were ever built (including Jellicoe's Motopia and a colossal redevelopment of Soho. There is a very good article about the group from Architectural Review here. It prompted a trip for me to RIBA to look at the original issues, but alas the adverts are removed from them.
If anyone reads this and knows of somewhere I can see the adverts I would love to see them.