City Bridge Foundation is a charity set up around 900 years ago for the maintenance of the old London Bridge. Through bridge tolls, rents, bequests and charitable donations, along with sensible investment and management, the fund has grown over the years and now has total assets of around £1.6 billion.
Our primary aim remains to maintain our five bridges – Tower, London, Southwark, Millennium and Blackfriars bridges – but since 1995 we have also used surplus funds to award grants to charitable organisations across Greater London.
We currently award over £30 million to charities across the capital and have made a further £200 million available in the five years to 2026 to support London’s charity sector.
City Bridge Foundation is the working name of the historic Bridge House Estates. From 1995 to September 2023 our charity funding team was known as City Bridge Trust. In September 2023, our bridges and charity funding teams were brought together under a new name – City Bridge Foundation.
Our sole trustee is the City of London Corporation – the governing body for the Square Mile. Members of the Court of Common Council – the City Corporation’s primary decision-making body – form the City Bridge Foundation Board which governs our activities.