City Bridge Foundation is London’s oldest charity, founded over 700 years ago to maintain London Bridge. Today, it cares for five Thames crossings and distributes surplus income to charities across the capital. In this vivid history, Ian Doolittle traces the development of the Foundation from its religious origins as the ‘Bridge House’, through political intrigue, civic evolution and remarkable acts of giving. A compelling story of bridges, money, power and purpose, it reveals how the gifts of ordinary Londoners helped shape the physical and civic landscape of the city we know today.

Ian Doolittle is a legal historian and former academic barrister with a long-standing interest in London’s civic and charitable institutions. He has written extensively on property law, urban governance and historical legal structures, and is a former editor of the Journal of Legal History. This is his first book for a general readership.