Friargate Bridge, Derby

Friar Gate Bridge
Looking north west out of the city centre through the span of the bridge
Coordinates	52°55′26″N 1°29′08″W / 52.923989°N 1.485604°W / 52.923989; -1.485604Coordinates: 52°55′26″N 1°29′08″W / 52.923989°N 1.485604°W / 52.923989; -1.485604
Carries	GNR Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension
Crosses	Friar Gate
Locale	Derby
Other name(s)	Handyside Bridge
Owner	Derby City Council
Heritage status	Grade II listed
History
Designer	Richard Johnson
Constructed by	Andrew Handyside and Company
Opened	1878

Friar Gate Bridge, also known as Handyside Bridge after the company that built it, is a railway bridge at the end of Friar Gate in the centre of Derby in the East Midlands of England. The bridge is a remnant of the GNR Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension (known locally as the Friargate Line); it formed the approach to Derby Friargate railway station. It is a grade II listed building.

The bridge was built in 1878 by Andrew Handyside and Company, a Derby-based iron foundry firm, to the design of Richard Johnson, the Great Northern Railway's chief engineer for the route. It is of cast iron construction with stone abutments and is significant for the intricate decoration of the ironwork including the spandrels—which contain a deer motif, similar to the one on the city's coat of arms—and balustrade and the decorative two-tone paintwork. It carried the Great Northern Railway's Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension across the foot of Friar Gate and into Derby Friargate railway station from the direction of Nottingham Victoria railway station via Bennerley Viaduct. Friar Gate is a street of Georgian houses on the edge of Derby city centre and the bridge was built to be sympathetic to the local architecture, though it did not appease local residents who complained of its "meritricious decoration, which only emphasised the insult". The bridge is, in fact, two separate bridges set slightly apart in a vee shape; the tracks on each span served opposite sides of the island platform at Friargate station. Each bridge consists of four panels of ribbed arches bolted together.