10/05/2020
"One more unfortunate,
Weary of breath,
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death!
Take her up tenderly
Lift her with care;
Fashion'd so slenderly,
Young, and so fair! ..."
‘The Bridge of Sighs’ by Thomas Hood (1844)
Several bridges in London were much frequented by su***des, but Waterloo Bridge had an unenviable reputation of being the most popular of all of them.
In the 1840s about 15 percent of London's su***des were from Waterloo Bridge.
Some of the stories are heart-rending, often about women whose husbands had died, leaving them destitute, women who had arrived in London looking for work and been seduced and abandoned, or men whose businesses had failed. Even sadder are those stories of women so desperate that they throw their children into the river before jumping in themselves [1]
Found Drowned by G F Watts. c.1850
This image perfectly encapsulates the way art mythologized the idea of the ‘fallen woman’, and the social and moral debates contained within the fallen woman narrative, including desire, illegitimacy, religion and the dangers of the city.
The scene is set under Waterloo Bridge where the body of a young woman in a flame-coloured dress has been washed up on the foreshore of the Thames. Watts, like a number of artists, took inspiration for this painting from Thomas Hood’s popular poem The Bridge of Sighs. The poem describes the fate of a young woman who deceived by love, becomes pregnant, homeless and eventually commits su***de by throwing herself off Waterloo Bridge.[2]
[1] Described by The Foundling Museum
[2] skydive.ru Waterloo su***des
Photos:
Waterloo Bridge, this bridge replaced the old one demolished in 1930.
Watts Gallery in Compton, Surrey. Found Drowned by G F Watts. c.1850.
