A young distressed woman is standing on the pier of a bridge on the River Thames contemplating suicide. Engraving by T. Godfrey after G. Doré.

An episode in the poem "The bridge of sighs" by Thomas Hood, composed in 1844: "… Where the lamps quiver / So far in the river, / With many a light / From window and casement, / From garret to basement, / She stood, with amazement, / Houseless by night. / The bleak wind of March / Made her tremble and shiver; / But not the dark arch, / Or the black flowing river: / Mad from life's history, / Glad to death's mystery, / Swift to be hurl'd— / Any where, any where / Out of the world! …" In the background is St Paul's Cathedral, London