Buying London Bridge

JANUARY, 2018

We’ve all done it… A few drinks in the afternoon then a trip to the shops, we buy things we shouldn’t, we overspend. And depending on how much time we’ve spent in the pub, it might only be the next morning that we find out what we now own and wonder what on earth we have done.

I suspect many of us have also bought something that was not quite what we thought or hoped it would be. But in the end, these issues are fundamentally trivial and little more than irritating. But it is said that American entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch took shopping mishaps to a whole new level.

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In the late 1960’s London Bridge was slowly sinking into The Thames and was put up for auction. The St. Louis born oil and chainsaw magnate coughed up $2.460,00 and secured his piece of London.

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Dismantled brick by brick and shipped to Lake Havasu City.

The old London Bridge was dismantled brick by brick, shipped to his Lake Havasu City and painstakingly reassembled ready for a grand opening in 1971. It is said that, at this point, McCulloch would have thought, “Hold on a moment” and started fumbling for his receipt. To this day many believe he actually thought he was buying the infinitely grander, and still very much London-based, Tower Bridge.

Doh!