Peter W. Barlow
Peter William Barlow (
1809-
19 May 1885) was an
English civil engineer particularly associated with
bridges (he designed the first
Lambeth Bridge, a crossing of the River
Thames in
London), the design of
tunnels and the development of tunnelling techniques.
He was the son of an engineer and mathematician, professor
Peter Barlow of the
Royal Military Academy in
Woolwich, south-east London. His brother
William Henry Barlow was a noted
19th century railway engineer.
While designing the piers of Lambeth Bridge (a
suspension bridge design since replaced by the current structure) in
1862, Peter W. Barlow experimented with driving iron cylinders into the clay upon which much of central and north London sits. It was this experience that prepared him to work with
James Henry Greathead on the development of a
tunnelling shield to dig the
Tower Subway in
1870.
From 1859 to 1867, Barlow lived at No 8 The Paragon,
Blackheath, London.
[ Rhind, N. (1983) Blackheath Village & Environs, 1790-1970, Vol. 2 (Bookshop Blackheath, London)]
