BATTERSEA BRIDGE
This curious old pile is a singular expression of the barbarism of Gothic ages. It was built for the purpose of enabling persons to go over it, and little regard has consequently been paid to convenience of those who desire to go under it. It has the appearance from the river of an old fortress, and is garrisoned by a single toll-keeper.
Punch, Jul.-Dec. 1842
from The Illustrated London News, 1846
BATTERSEA BRIDGE connects Chelsea with Battersea,-a deformed, dangerous, and hideous-looking structure of wood, well-known to every waterman who "feathers his oars with charming dexterity" on the once silvery Thames.
Cruchley's London in 1865 : A Handbook for Strangers, 1865
Battersea Bridge, an old decrepit structure, almost as much out of date as Putney Bridge, and about to be replaced by a new and more commodious structure. It connects Battersea with Chelsea.
Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens's Dictionary of the Thames, 1881