The Rolling Bridge

A curling bridge is a type of movable bridge, of which the sole example shown here is The Rolling Bridge, built in 2004 as part of the Grand Union Canal office & retail development project at Paddington Basin, London.

The bridge was conceived by British designer Thomas Heatherwick, designed by SKM Anthony Hunt with Packman Lucas, and built by Littlehampton Welding Ltd.

This bridge consists of eight triangular sections hinged at the walkway level and connected above by two part links that may be collapsed toward the deck by hydraulic pistons, which are concealed in vertical posts in the bridge parapets. When extended, it resembles a conventional steel and timber footbridge, and is 12 metres long. However, to allow the passage of boats, the bridge can be made to curl up until its two ends touch, to form an octagonal shape measuring one half of the waterway’s width at that point.

The Rolling Bridge is curled up every Friday at noon.

In 2005, the bridge won the British Structural Steel Design Award.