Illegal street vendors who sell peanuts and souvenirs on London’s famous bridges face a looming crackdown after authorities realised they have been taking advantage of a geographical quirk to avoid detection.

According to a report presented to the City of London Corporation’s Planning and Transportation Committee on Tuesday (May 8), hawkers on Tower Bridge and Millennium Bridge had cottoned on to the fact that only half the spans were being regularly monitored.

They had been spotted sitting within a metre of the halfway points of the two bridges, knowing City licensing officers could not target them beyond those points.

The City of London’s Bridge House Estate owns both landmarks, but it only has powers to patrol the parts that fall within its territory. Southwark Council is in charge of enforcing licensing for the southern half of the Millennium bridge, and it splits the responsibility for Tower Bridge with Tower Hamlets.

It reflected “poorly” on the Corporation’s image that it couldn’t enforce the rules on its own landmarks, the report said.

Millennium Bridge
Millenium Bridge

Security regularly moved the sellers on, but the report described the hawkers as “opportunistic” – they were swift to change their operations based on when and where monitoring was taking place.

The issue of illegal street trading, and particularly peanut seller trolleys, was raised with the Ports Authority in July 2017.

A crackdown in August resulted in 52 illegal traders being stopped, with three ice cream vans and five peanut trolleys seized, and 21 prosecutions launched.

Southwark and Tower Hamlets were struggling to monitor sellers on Tower Bridge and needed help, the Committee heard.

“Both Boroughs have advised that they do not have the necessary resources to effectively enforce against illegal traders on the Bridge although Tower Hamlets are now being more active with respect to traders near Tower Bridge,” the report said.

A recent raid by bailiffs ended with the closure of a Cable Street premises where the bridges’ nut sellers were storing their carts.

However there were still six regular peanut sellers spotted on Tower Bridge, along with ice cream, souvenir and jewellery sellers, the report said.

The hawkers are deemed safety concern due to the congestion, the gas bottles they use, and because the food attracts pigeons and vermin. They have also attracted complaints from the public, and are accused of detracting from visitors’ experience of the attractions.

Local authorities are 'struggling to monitor' peanut sellers on Tower Bridge

Alderman Prem Goyal said he had walked over the city’s bridges every day for 15 years and said the sellers were out “12 hours a day, seven days a week”.

Southwark had agreed to let the City police its half of the bridges, and talks were underway with Tower Hamlets too, the committee heard.

The committee agreed to fund an extra licensing officer to patrol the bridges, from the Bridge House Estate, for the next two years at a cost of £50,000 a year.