Mushroom Bridge

Sometimes, in hunting for something specific and by mistakenly taking the wrong road, you find a glistering jewel of a place that captures your imagination!

This is a belter of a bridge, known as... (pick your personal favourite) The Mushroom Bridge, The Mushy, Mushy Brig, The Cowboy Hat, The Twirly Bridge, The Spiral Bridge, The White Bridge or The Mousetrap.

We were actually looking for the Redbridge Viaduct, but went down Galafoot Lane and were marvelling at the array of spring blooms on the riverbank when I looked up and spotted this super cool concrete fungus chungus of a bridge.

Love it or loathe it, it's a bridge ahead of its time. A kool kat in concrete spanning both the Gala Water and the main Borders Railway to Edinburgh Waverley.

Driven by a popular need for speed in building, post-war, concrete fulfilled a myriad of purposes. From high-rise housing to hospitals, bridges to the Borders Railway. Concrete was the material of choice to rebuild urban Britain after the war. Cheap and cheerful, chuck it up quick, it replaced places and rehoused people promptly.

This Brutalist bridge is a bold and not very old contribution to the fabric of Galashiels, which helped to hurry mill workers over the river and railway to work each morning.

I thought this would have been a seventies addition to this gallus Gala locale, but no, it was a mid to late fifties addition, built to connect the new houses at Langlee to the old cotton mill in Netherdale.

I loved its lanky build-up. Look at that long catwalk approach...

...and the game show stairs!

These look like they're just waiting to be graced by Bob Monkhouse or Bruce Forsyth.

It's a unique design with the bridge spanning two different levels over two different bodies, the water of Gala Water and the railway.

It's held together with this massive mushroomy tower at its core, and the celebrity-style staircase!

Looking up, it's apparent where the fungus in the concrete name came to fruition! Imagine the large cap of a field mushroom, heavy-headed with its brown gills resting on its stalk and ping...cast it in concrete, and you've got yersel a massive mushy, but one that carries people over land and water and trains! Some might say it's a magic mushroom.

I chatted to people around Galashiels who were all really keen to help shape the history of this bridge and tell me about its past...

I loved the fact that people were so passionate about this bridge. Normally, we don't give a second thought to the bridges we cross. They're old, and stone, and from the past, but this bridge was emotive. It held strong memories for people. It had a living history, which mattered, and was very much in the forefront of people's minds, and people were very vocal about their chosen name for it! Mushroom Bridge or The Mushy won hands down!

The bridge was built in the 1950s as part of a 'building for the future' programme, which aimed to develop pedestrian-friendly routes through towns and cities, and acted as connective structures which had purpose and form.

This amazing picture, which was shared with me by Steve Logan, shows the area that had been cleared for new housing with the bridge in the middle left of the image, running over the railway. Can you see it?

See how it goes one way over the train track and the other over the river.

The image is from 24th April 1958, almost seventy years ago. It shows the lower part of Langlee, all shiny and new, having just been constructed. Look how few vehicles there are in the streets, and check out those beautiful hills at Buckholm, hugging up the houses and all the white, white washing on the lines.

There's an additional secret hidden in the hollows of this concrete cross over.

In chatting to people in Galashiels about the bridge, people reported hearing gurgles mid bridge, in the middle of the night, returning from parties and pubs. People thought they were just a bit popped, but it was actually a function of this...should we call it a burping bridge?

When the bridge was designed, the drainage system for the lower part of the Langlee Housing Estate was incorporated into the concrete vessels of the bridge, and sewage was carried in pipes, integrated into the structure, which made its way over the railway and river and down to the sewage works.

What a fascinating and discreet piece of engineering.

I've seen bridges in concrete like this before, modern in style, like the Kingsgate Footbridge over the River Wear at Durham designed by Ove Arup, but this was a later design of 1963. Gala was ahead of the crowd with this one!

Victor Passmore was on par in Peterlee with his Apollo Pavilion of 1955

So I was trying to think who might have waved a wand in concrete design in the Borders in the mid fifties...

This image from The Guardian in 2017 shows a distinctly different style of stadium at Gala's Fairydene Rovers FC, designed by Peter Womersley.

I felt sure that The Mushroom Bridge must be one of his forward-thinking designs especially as it was in concrete. Well known for his origami-style football stand, he became renowned in the Borders for his constructional imagination. I was excited to think that this might be a bridge by him, but with a little research, the Preserving Womersley archive replied to my request for information, stating that...

A bridge detective's work is never done!

The likelihood is that it was designed by engineers who built the housing estate, but its designer seems to have been lost in the annals of time. Such a shame that those who put the work in fail to get the recognition (or the healthy dose of disdain if it's not your cup of tea!)

The bridge is brutalist in its design, and I like it.

It strips away the fancy detail and ornate décor of older designs, revealing the raw materials it's made from. There's no ostentation.

Derived from the French term Béton brut, meaning raw concrete, brutalist architecture is left unfinished, highlighting the structural attributes and, like a good GCSE maths equation, showing the workings out!

I loved the sharp cuts to the edges of the stairs, like a crisp, ironed shirt collar, but coupled alongside the rounded bends of the arch in the mushroom's tunnel and the circle of the underside of the mushroom platform itself. It shows the flexibility and flow, the possibilities of concrete.

I love the way it strode out, leggy, sharp and edgy in the soft, natural environment of the wooded dene. It felt incongruous amidst the babbling water, which made a real contrasting backdrop to the stark, grey solidness of the structure. People need both; built and natural. It was a beautiful view from the top.

Thanks to Scott Dowding for this nighttime perspective.

Love it or loathe it, and it's ok to have strong bridge beliefs, I personally think this is a bit of a Bobby Dazzler of a bridge. It's different and functional and was ahead of its time in the looks department.

Mushy, Twirly, Mousetrap or White, however you see it, and whatever you call it, it's served a purpose and seen the people of Galashiels alright for nigh on 70 years. That's longer lasting than many of the knees that have climbed it!

As bridges go, this is a ten out of ten for me.