View of Westminster from Lambeth, with Westminster Abbey, St. Margaret's, Westminster Hall, St. Stephen's Chapel, the Banqueting House, St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and Westminster Bridge, with boats on the river Thames in the foreground

The first suggestions for a bridge at Westminster were made soon after the Restoration but were quashed by opposition from the City Corporation and the Thames watermen, who feared the loss of their livelihood. The growth of Westminster in the 18th Century urgently increased the need for a bridge. Apart from taking a boat or using the horse ferry anybody wanting to cross the river had to either go round by Putney Bridge, which only opened in 1729, or use the overcrowded London Bridge. Finally in 1738 the Swiss engineer Charles Labelye was appointed designer of the new brige. The watermen were paid 25,000 in compensation, and the Archibishop of Canterbury, who owned the horse ferry, received 21,025. After a temporary setback when one of the piers subsided in 1748, the bridge was finally opened to traffic in November 1750.