Some rebuilding had been carried out on…
1209 CE
Some rebuilding had been carried out on the bridge across the Thames destroyed by fire in 1136, presumably along the same lines as those instituted by William Rufus, during the reign of Stephen.
On the accession of Henry II, there had been an attempt to regularize its maintenance by the institution of a national monastic guild to support this work—effectively by sale of indulgences.
There is evidence that there were also unlicensed local guilds in London with the same purpose.
Peter de Colechurch had been appointed in 1163 as the "Warden of the Brethren of the Bridge", and this seems to have combined all of the preceding ad hoc arrangements.
Peter in 1173 soon proposed to replace the timber bridge with a stone one, almost certainly required by the popularity of the Thomas Becket cult and the associated pilgrimage from the bridge to Canterbury.
Construction began in 1176 under de Colechurch's direction.
A chapel was built near the center of the bridge (dedicated to the recently martyred and canonized Becket who, appropriately, had been born in the parish of St. Mary Colechurch).
St. Thomas Chapel is grander than high town parish churches; it even has a river-level entrance for fishermen and those who taxi passengers across the river.
The new bridge, which has taken thirty-three years to complete, is finished in 1209 during the reign of King John.
To finance the construction of this large bridge across the Thames, King John sets a precedent by allowing houses, shops, and a church to be built on top of the historic London Bridge, making it a tourist attraction.
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