Forty years after it was dismantled and taken, brick by brick, 10,000 miles to Arizona in the United States, London Bridge is still wowing the crowds as the centrepiece of a tourist attract ....

I'M HAVING  lunch overlooking London Bridge, shoo-ing away the pigeons that are scratching around my feet. The wind catches the Union Jack and the river is busy with pleasure crafts. This is not the Thames, however, and, like me, the bridge is a long way from London.

It's just over 40 years since London Bridge was sold to Arizona businessman Robert McCulloch for almost $2.5million (£1.8million). There wasn't even a river for it to cross but he needed a centrepiece for Lake Havasu City, a new planned community he'd founded in the Mohave Desert in 1963.

Click here now for amazing deals to Arizona!

Constructed in 1831, London Bridge was designed by John Rennie. By 1962, it was sinking under the weight of the increasing flow of traffic and put on sale to the highest bidder.

The bridge was then taken, brick by numbered brick, almost 10,000 miles to its new position in Arizona. It took three years and $7million (£5million) to rebuild, and was given a river, the Bridgewater Channel, to span.

The bridge was opened in October 1971, with a flock of pigeons released for added authenticity. So how does it look today? Well, the pigeons are still there but little rainfall means the old stonework has faded in the Arizona sunshine. I walk across, glad to see the old green lamp-posts, included in the sale, which were moulded from melted-down Napoleonic cannons.

Attempts at recreating olde England on the river bank are clichéd. There's a Tudor Village, about to be demolished, a "quaint" English Village that's looking a bit tired and the London Bridge Resort, where I was staying, a mock-Tudor affair with towers and turrets and a full-size replica of the Queen's Gold State Coach in the lobby.

Tourists can also visit Windsor Beach State Park, enjoy high tea with a Queen of England, Beefeaters or Lord Mayor, peek inside a doubledecker bus or take Ghost Walks. As a tourist attraction, London Bridge is a resounding success, drawing 2.5million visitors annually.

Want incredible last-minute deals to Arizona? Click here now...

It's good to see her, although she seems out of place, an antique surrounded by wannabes. Gift shops sell chips from London Bridge for a few bucks and I start calculating how much it would cost to buy, number them and bring them home. Yet as I leave town on another sunny Arizona morning, I look at the bigger picture: the blue skies, the palm trees, the endless horizon, and it occurs to me that as retirement spots go, there are worst places dear old London Bridge could be.

GETTING THERE:

Bon Voyage (0800 316 0194/www.bon-voyage.co.uk) offers seven nights in Arizona from £789pp (two sharing), including three nights at Renaissance Scottsdale Resort, two nights at London Bridge Resort, Lake Havasu, two nights at Hualapai Lodge, Grand Canyon West (all room only), return British Airways flights from Heathrow to Phoenix and car hire.

Arizona Office of Tourism: 020 7367 0938/www.ArizonaGuide.com or www.golakehavasu.com