Boris Johnson plans £80m 'living' London bridge

Boris Johnson has announced proposals for a new 'living' bridge across the Thames in a bid to boost London's image in the wake of recession.

The pedestrian crossing, with an estimated cost of £80m, will be lined with shops, cafes and homes running from the north side of the river between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges to the South Bank complex of museums and theatres.

Boris Johnson believes the the £80m price tag of the scheme can be met by the sale of its properties, and he told LBC radio last week the bridge is one of a series of initiatives he is pursuing aimed at "changing the look and feel of London greatly for the better".

The revived project being backed by the business group London First, has been likened by Johnson to creating a 21st century equivalent of the Ponte Vecchio – the medieval bridge spanning the Arno River in Florence.

The Sunday Times reports that plans being drawn up by the Mayor's policy advisor Anthony Brown are based on designs by Antoine Grumbach. The French Architect won a competition to design a habitable bridge in 1996.

A developer was lined up to build the bridge but English Heritage opposed the project, claiming it threatened to damage views of the Thames. The project was dropped in 1997, after Labour won the election.

Graham Capper, director of communications at London First said "this is the kind of thing London should be looking at and we’re certainly interested in working with the mayor to examine the proposals.”