About Marlow Bridge

Marlow Bridge is a road traffic and foot bridge over the River Thames between the town of Marlow, Buckinghamshire and the village of Bisham in Berkshire. It crosses the Thames just upstream of Marlow Lock, on the reach to Temple Lock.

There has been a bridge on the site since before 1227 which was stated in around 1530 to have been constructed of timber. In 1642 this bridge was partly destroyed by the Parliamentary Army. In 1789 a new timber bridge was built by public subscription with a contribution from the Thames Navigation Commission to increase the headroom underneath.

The current suspension bridge was designed by William Tierney Clark and was built between 1829 and 1832, replacing a wooden bridge further downstream which had collapsed in 1828. It is the only suspension bridge across the non-tidal Thames. The Sz©chenyi Chain Bridge, which spans the River Danube in Budapest, was also designed by William Clark and is a larger scale version of Marlow bridge.

The bridge now has a three tonne weight restriction and is used only by foot and local road traffic. Other traffic is carried by the Marlow By-pass Bridge. It is a Grade I Listed Structure.