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But while these affairs were in agitation,
the ruin of the bridge was completed, by
five arches being borne down and destroy-
ed by the ice and floods, after a great
frost and deep snow in the year 1282.
However, the draw-bridge, which had
at first a tower on the north side, and was
contrived to afford a passage for ships with
provisions to Queenhithe, as well as to
prevent the attempts of an enemy, was
begun to be built in the year 1426; but
about ten years after two of the arches at
the south end, together with the bridge-
gate, fell down: and the ruins of the
latter still remaining, one of the locks or
passages for the water, was almost ren-
dered useless; whence it received the
name of the rock lock, which has occa-
sioned the citizens to take it for a natural
rock; and indeed though these ruins have
lain in the water for above three centuries,
they are still as impenetrable as a solid
rock.
From that time the buildings on the
bridge increased slowly; for in 1471,
when Thomas Fauconbridge the Bastard,
besieged the bridge, there were no more
than thirteen houses besides the gate, and
a few other buildings erected upon it.
However, in Stow's time, both sides
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were built up, and it had the appearance
of a regular street, there being only left
three openings, with stone walls and iron
rails over them, to afford a prospect east
and west of the Thames. These were
over three of the widest arches, usually
called the navigable locks.
Thus we see that the bridge in Stow's
time nearly resembled what it was before
the houses were lately pulled down: and
the continuator of Mr. Stow observes,
that it continued in the same state till the
year 1632; when on the 13th of Fe-
bruary, the buildings on the north end of
the bridge to the vacancy on both sides,
containing forty-two houses, were burnt
down by a maid servant's carelessness, in
setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under
a pair of stairs, at a needle-maker's near
St. Magnus's church: this fire burnt very
furiously, and there being a scarcity of
water, occasioned by the Thames being
almost frozen over, these buildings were
all consumed within eight hours.
In this condition the bridge continued
for several years; the confusions in the
state interrupting the government of the
city, and putting a stop to all farther im-
provements. However, some of the houses
next the city were rebuilt of timber in the
years 1645 and 1646; these edifices were
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