From the Body to the Square: Public Privacy in the Shadows of London Bridge

Old London Bridge, privatized settlements, underwent ten alterations during its existence, reflecting London's urban changes and privacy history. This paper reviews the bridge's metamorphosis in the medieval epoch, from its genesis as a bridge generator featuring a chapel, to compressed houses and shops, symbolizing shifts from religious to mercantile governance. Interdisciplinary analysis uncovers the intricate manifestation of privacy beyond confines of private spaces while ensuring prospective public comfort, seen in legal defense and religious yearnings. The records of London Bridge in the ‘London Assize of Nuisance’ presage the nascent emergence of privacy as a demand originating from individuals within the public realm, for property rights and seclusion from prying gazes. The bridge's role during the English Reformation also embodies citizens' desires, both pioneers and commoners, for religious privacy. Amid societal changes, this study probes the gradual evolution of struggles for public privacy. These tensions find expression from the veneration of relics in the chapel and religious punishments at the bridge's gates, leading to the establishment of the public Square in front of the dissolved chapel, an augmentation of the social vitality. This cements the bridge's legacy as a living container for the nuanced progression of privacy within the public arena.