No. 65 Bridge Ward Volunteer

MOURN ARMS (1st Motion) (see original 1799 description below)
Bridge is a small ward in the City of London and is named from its closeness to London Bridge. (See maps – click to enlarge). Since boundary changes in 2003, Bridge is bounded by the River Thames to the south; Swan Lane and Gracechurch Street to the west; Fenchurch Street to the north; and Rood Lane and Lovat Lane to the east.
The ward includes Fishmongers’ Hall, St. Magnus-the-Martyr church, the Monument to the Great Fire of London, and the full span of London Bridge. The present day ward of Bridge was historically (1550-1978) known as Bridge Within — a separate ward called Bridge Without existed south of the Thames in Southwark with its own Alderman between 1550 and 1978. In 1550 the new ward of Bridge Without was created to cover the city’s area of control of three manors in Southwark (the newly acquired King’s Manor and Great Liberty added to the Guildable Manor which it had controlled since 1327), the Court of Aldermen appointing its alderman; there were never any members of the Court of Common Council elected there as the three Courts Leet of the Manors fulfilled that representative role. The existing ward north of the river became Bridge Within. However, the city’s administrative responsibility for the Without ward had in practice disappeared by the mid-Victorian era as various aspects of metropolitan government were extended into the neighbouring areas.
Despite the fact that the area of Bridge Without had been removed completely from the city’s boundaries in 1899, the ward continued to de jure exist and the Court of Aldermen continued to appoint an alderman for the ward by co-option, usually the senior emeritus Lord Mayor (or father of the city) until as late as 1978— Bridge Without was then merged with Bridge Within, to become the present day Bridge ward. This is, in a sense, a return to the situation prior to 1550. However the ward is still officially referred to as “Bridge and Bridge Without” as a result of the 1978 amalgamation.