Dance's design for a twin or double bridge to replace the old and narrow London Bridge was part of his re-planning scheme that included the Legal Quays and Custom House. Sited just east of the existing bridge, Dance proposed two parallel bridges each with a central drawbridge to be used alternately so that road traffic need not be disrupted. The Monument (which, as City Architect, Dance had repaired in 1783) set in a crescent marked the north axis with wide curved steps between it and the Thames and on the Surrey side an obelisk commemorating British naval victories stood in a corresponding though deeper 'piazza'. Kalman gives the Roman hippodrome, in particular the Circus Maximus, as the principle source for Dance's monumental design. His was one of a number of designs by other architects and engineers published in The Several Plans and Drawings Referred to in the Third Report from the Select Committee upon the Improvement of the Port of London (1800). None was chosen and a new London Bridge sited further west and designed by the civil engineer John Rennie (1761-1821) was built 1824-31 under the supervision of his son, also John (1794-1874). Demolished in 1967, the granite facework was re-erected at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, USA in 1970-71. The present bridge was designed by Mott, Hay & Anderson with Lord Holford as consultant, 1967-72.

Dance's monumental scheme was well illustrated in a bird's-eye view oil painting, 3 by 6 feet, that he commissioned from his friend William Daniell (1769-1838) that was aquatinted and published in 1802. The painting is at the Guilldhall, London (the engraving is reproduced in Stroud fig.51a).

See also engraved plans for the improvement of the Port of London.

LITERATURE. Stroud p.154; Kalman pp.242-3; S. Bradley & N. Pevsner, London 1: City of London, 1997, p.316-17.