The Dark Theories Behind the “London Bridge Is Falling Down” Nursery Rhyme

What do T. S. Eliot’s renowned poem The Waste Land (1922) and Fergie’s sexually suggestive 2006 song “London Bridge (Oh Snap)” have in common? If you guessed that they both include lyrics from the nursery rhyme “London Bridge is Falling Down,” you’d be right.

London Bridge—not to be mistaken for Tower Bridge with its prominent Neo-Gothic towers, which is half a mile down the River Thames—hasn’t just fallen once, but has come down and been rebuilt numerous times in the hundreds of years since it first went up. There are a handful of dark theories about the rhyme’s inspiration—ranging from a Viking invasion to human sacrifice—but we’ll cross that bridge when get to it. First up, let’s break down the known history of the tune.

A Bridge to the Past

As is the case with many traditional nursery rhymes, the author and date of composition of “London Bridge is Falling Down” are unknown. There’s a possible mention of the ditty in the 1659 play The London Chaunticleres, and Henry Carey also evokes it in his satiric poem Namby Pamby (1725). The earliest known version of the full lyrics are found in 1744’s Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book:

“London bridge
Is broken down,
Dance over my Lady Lee;
London bridge
Is broken down,
With a gay lady.”

This book is a sequel to Tommy Thumb’s Song Book, which was released earlier that same year and also included the “London Bridge” rhyme. It’s now lost; the earliest extant version of the first book is an American reprint from 1788. As the reprint was published in Massachusetts, London Bridge is actually subbed out in the lyrics for local Charlestown Bridge. 

The words to the tune have changed slightly over the years. Nowadays we sing:

“London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.”

The song then progresses through various building materials that could be destroyed—“Build it up with iron and steel” but “Iron and steel will bend and bow”—before ending with setting “a man to watch.” The identity of the “fair lady/Lady Lee” remains a mystery, though a few candidates have been put forward. One is Eleanor of Provence, Henry III’s queen, whose mismanagement of the bridge’s revenue was criticized. There’s also Matilda of Scotland, Henry I’s queen, who was responsible for building bridges that crossed the River Lea, a tributary of the Thames.

The earliest melody recorded for a song called “London Bridge” appears in 1710 in the second volume of John Playford’s The Dancing Master, but no lyrics are given. The tune that the rhyme is now sung to first appears in 1879 in A. H. Rosewig’s (Illustrated National) Nursery Songs and Games.

In The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1894), folklorist Alice Gomme compiles different versions of the song—for instance, some mention a dog keeping watch, while others include an imprisoned person. She also describes the game associated with the rhyme, which involves two people creating an arch with their arms for the other players run under. At the end of the song, the arch lowers to catch a player. Bridge-based songs and arch games are also popular throughout Europe, for example, Germany’s “Die goldene Brücke” and Spain’s “El puente está quebrado.”

London Bridge’s Many Falls

Let’s now bridge the gap between the rhyme’s rumored inspiration and reality. The first iterations of London Bridge—which date back to when the Romans invaded Britain—were made out of wood, and it’s thought that the rhyme may have been inspired by a Viking attack on one of the bridge’s timber versions in the 11th century.

A verse written by Ottarr the Black in the Old Norse saga Heimskringla details King Olaf II of Norway’s destruction of London Bridge. Samuel Laing’s 1844 translation renders this event as, “London Bridge is broken down,— / Gold is won and bright renown.” This may seem like the seed of the rhyme, but it’s actually the result of a mistranslation, one that was itself likely inspired by the rhyme. In 2002, John Clark from the Museum of London pointed out that without artistic license, Ottarr’s words more accurately read “O prover of the serpent of Ygg’s storms, valiant in war, you broke down London’s bridge” [PDF] . Although the attack itself (rather than Laing’s lines) may still have been the muse for the rhyme, there are some historians who doubt London Bridge ever fell at Viking hands. 

Gomme looks to the bridge’s building, rather than falling, and suggests that foundation sacrifice—the burying of a living person in the foundations of a structure to supposedly ensure its stability—explains the lyrics about an imprisoned person being taken. Although sacrificial immurement is popular in folklore, there’s debate about how common the practice actually was. Gomme claims London Bridge’s “stones were bespattered with the blood of little children,” but there’s no evidence to back this up. Skeletons were found beneath London Bridge in 2007, but these bones were in an old tomb, rather than in the bridge’s foundations.

Another possibility is that the rhyme refers to any of the numerous times the bridge has been damaged or destroyed by weather, fire, and ice. Richard Thomson in his Chronicles of London Bridge (1827) reports that a tornado tore through London in 1091, allegedly destroying hundreds of buildings, as well as the wooden London Bridge. Then, in the winter of 1282, the Thames froze over and the ice exerted so much pressure on the bridge’s stone arches that five of them broke away.

London has also been the site of many great fires. A blaze in 1135 completely destroyed the bridge, and although it was rebuilt with timber, by 1176 work started on a stone replacement. While the base structure was now more fireproof, the buildings on the bridge still went up in flames during the Great Fire of 1212 and during subsequent blazes. The unrepaired damage done to the bridge during a 1633 inferno actually stopped the 1666 Great Fire of London from spreading south of the Thames. 

Exactly which of these falls inspired the “London Bridge is Falling Down” rhyme is now lost to time, just like most of the previous versions of the bridge itself (aside from the 1831 iteration, which has stood in Arizona since 1971!).

“London Bridge Is Falling Down” Lyrics

The nursery rhyme’s mysterious origins haven’t stopped it from becoming a childhood classic. If you suddenly feel the urge to start singing it next time you pass by a playground, you can find the lyrics to “London Bridge Is Falling Down” below.

“London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair Lady.

Build it up with wood and clay,
Wood and clay, wood and clay,
Build it up with wood and clay,
My fair Lady.

Wood and clay will wash away,
Wash away, wash away,
Wood and clay will wash away,
My fair Lady.

Build it up with bricks and mortar,
Bricks and mortar, bricks and mortar,
Build it up with bricks and mortar,
My fair Lady.

Bricks and mortar will not stay,
Will not stay, will not stay,
Bricks and mortar will not stay,
My fair Lady.

Build it up with iron and steel,
Iron and steel, iron and steel,
Build it up with iron and steel,
My fair Lady.

Iron and steel will bend and bow,
Bend and bow, bend and bow,
Iron and steel will bend and bow,
My fair Lady.

Build it up with silver and gold,
Silver and gold, silver and gold,
Build it up with silver and gold,
My fair Lady.

Silver and gold will be stolen away,
Stolen away, stolen away,
Silver and gold will be stolen away,
My fair Lady.

Set a man to watch all nigh,
Watch all night, watch all night,
Set a man to watch all night,
My fair Lady.

Suppose the man should fall asleep,
Fall asleep, fall asleep,
Suppose the man should fall asleep?
My fair Lady.

Give him a pipe to smoke all night,
Smoke all night, smoke all night,
Give him a pipe to smoke all night,
My fair Lady.”

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