Explore Waterloo Bridge

At 1,230 feet long, Waterloo Bridge is the longest bridge in London and occupies a right-angle bend in the river. Completed in 1945, it replaced the Old Waterloo Bridge, which was opened in 1817 by the Prince Regent accompanied by the Duke of Wellington to commemorate the second anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. Architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott – celebrated today for designing Battersea Power Station and the red telephone box – was commissioned by The London County Council to create the current Waterloo Bridge. Women were employed to complete the bridge’s construction during WWII by the building contractor Peter Lind & Company and it is still popularly known as ‘The Ladies Bridge’. Made of reinforced concrete, the outside is clad in pale grey Portland stone which is able to ‘clean itself’ whenever it rains, hence why the bridge looks in such impressively good condition.

In the spirit of the Impressionists and the English Romantics who captured the Thames and its bridges in their paintings, Leo Villareal’s artwork for Waterloo Bridge incorporates colours that shift and blend, adjusting to the constantly changing riverscape and its surroundings. Villareal’s references for Waterloo are drawn from the bridge’s architecture, detailing, and history. Citing a visual tie with Millennium Bridge, the artist finds a similar opportunity to explore a single line of light, introducing a 379 metre stretch of lighting across each side of the bridge, in addition to pastel washes of colour illuminating its central spine.