These images show Tower Bridge under construction in the 1880s.
At the offices of one of the original contractors, management had decided to have a "clear-out" and a great many boxes of old paperwork from throughout the firm's history were simply dumped.
The only person who thought these photos were worth saving is a friend and neighbour of mine. He rescued them, scanned them and this weekend he gave me copies to share here on the blog.
We will never know just how much other material was lost in the company's "clear-out", journals, letters and many other photos probably went straight to landfill.
An act of corporate vandalism that could so easily have been averted. I am sure that many public archives and private collectors would have helped the company gain space by taking this material "off their hands", they would probably even paid them handsomely to do so, at the very the least the company could have saved themselves the cost of skip hire.
If you would like to know a little more about the history of Tower Bridge, there is an excellent quick guide at Caroline's Miscellany, this guide also has many useful links to other sites.
Some details about the bridge, which celebrates the 125th anniversary of its foundation this year, from the Tower Bridge website here.