Another London bridge is falling down

Dear Londoners — it’s Andrew here. Don’t worry, Alys is fine. In fact our new editor finds herself sat on a slow train plodding its way up to Liverpool for Labour conference. She’s up to launch our new political programme — Londonism — a more capital-focused answer to our Prime Minister’s beloved Manchesterism. We’re still working on what exactly that (probably doomed) ideology means in policy terms so for now Alys has been tasked with spending the next few days frantically running around the conference centre threatening to fight any politician who slanders the capital.

In her absence, we’ve got some great stories in the works for you this week (and I’m not just saying that because two of them are by yours truly). Expect some amazing insights into the Holborn by-election and on Saturday we’re dropping a major investigation that has taken us over three months to pull together.

But before all that, we’re here with your regularly scheduled Monday briefing, where we dig into the iconic bridge at risk of long-term closure after cracks were discovered and get to the bottom of a mysterious plague of dead animals that keep appearing in a canal in West London.

London’s broken bridges keep getting shut down. Is Waterloo next?

First it was Hammersmith, shut back in 2019 after council engineers warned it was at risk of collapse (if you want to find out how the council knew for years of that risk and ignored it, read our full investigation). Then it was the Albert Bridge, shut to all but pedestrians in February 2026 for urgent repairs.

Now, it looks like Waterloo Bridge could be next. Engineers from Westminster council say they have discovered extensive water damage and some cracks as wide as 2mm in the bridge. Its near century-old stone frame, the reports suggest, is struggling to cope with years of heavy traffic and increasingly extreme weather (it’s amazing some of the unexpected ways climate change is having an impact, eh?). Without urgent repairs before 2029 (for which the council has applied for funding from the government’s structures fund) it could face prolonged Hammersmith–style closure. At least, that’s all according to documents obtained by Bloomberg.

It’s far from alone. Three other London bridges — Westminster, Lambeth and Vauxhall — have all already been put on a ‘critical’ list by TfL, meaning they risk closure without urgent repairs. The problems seem to stem from the fact that skint councils don't have the budgets for regular bridge maintenance anymore, meaning the normally slow breakdown of these often Victorian bridges is being rapidly accelerated.

Want a fun challenge on a Monday morning? We spent Friday desperately trying to set a high score in this game — invented by freelance writer James O’Malley — where you’re challenged to name as many MPs as you can from memory in five minutes. Our current office record — held by Andrew — is a respectable 46, a figure he says was only dampened by frenzied typos. Can you beat it? Comment your score down below.

MP Recall — How many MPs can you remember?

Name as many current UK MPs as you can in five minutes.

MP Recall

Why are dead pets washing up in a London canal?

Last week, the rather gruesome news emerged that dead animals were washing up in the canals of Brentford. Obviously, our curiosity was piqued. What animals? And why?

When we called up Paul Keane of the Brentford Community Boat House, who organises water sports events for local deprived children and has understandably been kicking up a fuss about the putrid state of the canal, he told us the poisoned animals go well beyond the fish and bird life expected. “We’ve had cats, dogs, foxes and ducks,” he said, counting at least 12 such animals this summer.

Warning: graphic imagery

In fact, only today he found a cat floating in the water — yet another pet killed by what would appear to be botulism (a vet who treated a duck Keane rescued from the water diagnosed botulism) after drinking the toxic water. One dog was apparently found rotting in the canal for weeks.