![Tower subway map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Tower_subway_map.gif)
The Tower Subway is a tunnel beneath the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
in
central London
Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...
, between
Tower Hill
Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher grou ...
on the north bank of the river and Vine Lane (off
Tooley Street
Tooley Street is a road in central and south London connecting London Bridge to St Saviour's Dock; it runs past Tower Bridge on the Southwark/Bermondsey side of the River Thames, and forms part of the A200 road. (.)
St Olave
The earliest na ...
) on the south. In 1869 a circular tunnel was dug through the
London clay
The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian (early Eocene Epoch, c. 56–49 million years ago) age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for its fossil content. The fossils from t ...
using a cast iron
shield
A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of a ...
, an idea that had been patented in 1864 by
Peter W. Barlow
Peter William Barlow (1 February 1809 – 19 May 1885) was an English civil engineer, particularly associated with railways, bridges (he designed the first Lambeth Bridge, a crossing of the River Thames in London), the design of tunnels and the ...
but never built.
A
narrow gauge railway
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...
was laid in the tunnel and from August 1870 a cable-hauled wooden carriage conveyed passengers from one end to the other. This was uneconomic and the company went bankrupt by the end of the year. The tunnel was converted to pedestrian use and one million people a year crossed under the river, paying a toll of a
ha'penny. The opening of the toll-free
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is a Listed building#Grade I, Grade I listed combined Bascule bridge, bascule and Suspended-deck suspension bridge, suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones (architect), Horace Jones and e ...
nearby in 1894 caused a drop in income and the tunnel closed in 1898, after being sold to the
London Hydraulic Power Company
The London Hydraulic Power Company was established in 1883 to install a hydraulic power network in London. This expanded to cover most of central London at its peak, before being replaced by electricity, with the final pump house closing in 1977.
...
. Today the tunnel is used for water mains.
The same shield method of construction was used in 1890 to dig the tunnels of the
City and South London Railway
The City and South London Railway (C&SLR) was the first successful deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction. The railway was originally intended for cable-hauled trains, but owing ...
, the first of London's electrified "
Tube
Tube or tubes may refer to:
* ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film
* ''The Tube'' (TV series), a music related TV series by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom
* "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show
* Tube (band), a ...
" railways and the first underground electrified railway in the world.
History
Construction
In 1864 Peter Barlow patented a method of tunnelling using a circular
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
shield and to fill the gap between the tunnel lining and wall with
lime
Lime commonly refers to:
* Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit
* Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide
* Lime (color), a color between yellow and green
Lime may also refer to:
Botany ...
or cement to prevent settling of the surrounding ground.
Unfortunately, Barlow failed to explain how he intended to fill such gaps between shield and tunnel wall with grout.
He published a pamphlet in 1867 suggesting a network of tunnels with cars carrying up to twelve people.
In 1868 authority was obtained for a tunnel under the Thames between Great Tower Hill and Pickle Herring Stairs near Vine Street (now Vine Lane),
but there was a delay finding a contractor due to recent experiences with the
Thames Tunnel
The Thames Tunnel is a tunnel beneath the River Thames in London, connecting Rotherhithe and Wapping. It measures 35 feet (11 m) wide by 20 feet (6 m) high and is 1,300 feet (396 m) long, running at a depth of 7 ...
until his former pupil
James Henry Greathead
James Henry Greathead (6 August 1844 – 21 October 1896) was a mechanical and civil engineer renowned for his work on the London Underground railways, Winchester Cathedral, and Liverpool overhead railway, as well as being one of the earliest pr ...
tendered for £9,400.
Whilst Barlow patented his idea in 1864 for a tunnelling shield, he never constructed it: Greathead was accredited with the first shield construction for what is now known as the Tower Gateway complex in 1869. According to
William Copperthwaite
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
, who once worked under Greathead,
both Greathead in England and
Alfred Ely Beach
Alfred Ely Beach (September 1, 1826 – January 1, 1896) was an American inventor, publisher, and patent lawyer, born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is most known for his design of New York City's earliest subway predecessor, the Beach Pn ...
in New York invented and constructed their own versions of tunnelling shields simultaneously and independently of each other.
Work began in February 1869 with the boring of entrance shafts,
[ deep on the north bank and deep on the south bank. The tunnelling itself started in April using the circular Greathead shield.
Whilst many argue that the shield used was a "Barlow–Greathead" shield, William Copperthwaite says "... in 1868 ]arlow Arlow is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:
*Arlow Stout (1876–1957), American botanist
*Jacob Arlow (1912–2004), American teacher, scholar, and clinician
*Vyninka Arlow
Vyninka Arlow (born 25 March 1974 ...
provisionally patented a shield having near the cutting edge a transverse partition or diaphragm. Neither of these designs took practical form, and in 1869 Greathead in England and Beach in New York actually built and used shields having many features in common with Barlow's patents but differing from each other in details... Beach's shield resembled Barlow's patent of 1864, and Greathead's the provisional patent of 1868." Copperthwaite puts to bed all arguments over origins of tunnelling shields as being the patented but unimplemented idea of Barlow's in 1864 but the actual construction of a different patented device by Greathead was built and first used on the Tower Subway and simultaneously in New York, Beach created and made his own shield independently of Barlow's and Greathead's designs. Barlow lost out on credit because he never actually constructed one, only patenting the idea. Copperthwaite also reveals that Greathead was unaware of the 1868 provisional patent of Barlow's until 1895, a fact discussed in an 1895 Institution of Civil Engineers
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...
paper on the City and South London Railway acknowledged by Barlow.
A tunnel long was dug with a diameter of , a maximum of below the high-water level. This was bored through a stable layer of the London clay that lay below the river bed, below the soft alluvial deposits that had plagued the construction by Brunel of the earlier Thames Tunnel. This, combined with the simpler nature of the project – the excavation face was only one twentieth that of the Thames Tunnel – enabled faster progress. Screw jacks drove the shield forward at a rate of each week. The under-river section was dug in fourteen weeks and the tunnel completed in December 1869.
Cable railway
The entrance shafts were fitted with steam-powered lifts for passengers. The tunnel was laid with gauge railway track and a single car, carrying a maximum of 12 passengers, cable-hauled by two stationary steam engine
Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam cars ...
s, one on each side of the river.
The tunnel was completed by February 1870, and a press launch was held the following April.[ The underground railway opened for public use on 2 August 1870] charging 2 d for first class and 1d for second class, first class ticket holders merely having priority for the lifts and when boarding. However, the system was unreliable and uneconomic. The company went into receivership in November 1870, and the railway closed on 7 December 1870, four months after opening.[
]
Foot tunnel
The railcar and steam engines were removed, gaslight
Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either direct ...
s installed and the passenger lifts replaced with spiral staircases. The tunnel opened to pedestrians on 24 December 1870 at a toll of d and became a popular way to cross the river, averaging 20,000 people a week (one million a year). Its main users were described as "the working classes who were formerly entirely dependent on the ferries". In September 1888 the subway briefly achieved notoriety after a man with a knife was seen in the tunnel at the time when Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer wa ...
was committing murders in nearby Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...
.
In his '' Dictionary of London'', Charles Dickens Jr
Charles Culliford Boz Dickens (6 January 1837 – 20 July 1896) was the first child of the English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. A failed businessman, he became the editor of his father's magazine '' All the Year Round'', and ...
commented on the smallness of the tunnel: "there is not much head-room left, and it is not advisable for any but the very briefest of Her Majesty's lieges to attempt the passage in high-heeled boots, or with a hat to which he attaches any particular value."
The Italian writer Edmondo De Amicis
Edmondo De Amicis (; 21 October 1846 – 11 March 1908) was an Italian novelist, journalist, poet, and short-story writer. His best-known book is ''Cuore'', a children's novel translated into English as ''Heart''.
Early career
Born in Oneglia (to ...
(1846–1908) gave a description of a passage through the subway in his ''Jottings about London'':
In 1894 the toll-free Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is a Listed building#Grade I, Grade I listed combined Bascule bridge, bascule and Suspended-deck suspension bridge, suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones (architect), Horace Jones and e ...
opened a few hundred yards downriver, causing a drop in the subway's income. In 1897, Parliament passed a local act authorising the sale of the tunnel to the London Hydraulic Power Company
The London Hydraulic Power Company was established in 1883 to install a hydraulic power network in London. This expanded to cover most of central London at its peak, before being replaced by electricity, with the final pump house closing in 1977.
...
(LHPC) for £3,000 (worth over £ in ), and the subway closed to pedestrian traffic in 1898.
Utility tunnel
After its closure, the tunnel gained a new purpose as a route for hydraulic power mains operated by the LHPC and for water main
A water distribution system is a part of water supply network with components that carry potable water from a centralized treatment plant or wells to consumers to satisfy residential, commercial, industrial and fire fighting requirements.
Definit ...
s. It was damaged during the Second World War when a German bomb fell in the river near Tower Pier in December 1940, and exploded on the river bed very close to the tunnel's roof. The shock of the blast compressed the tunnel radially, reducing its diameter to at the point of impact, but the tunnel's lining was not penetrated. During the course of repair work, it was found that – apart from the bomb damage – the tunnel had survived seventy years of use in excellent condition.
The subway today
While it is no longer used for hydraulic tubes, the tunnel still carries water mains. The hydraulic tubes, once a major source of power in the centre of London, have since been replaced by fibre optic telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
s links.
A small round entrance building survives at Tower Hill near the Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
's ticket office, a short distance to the west of the main entrance to the Tower. This is not the original entrance but was built in 1926 by the London Hydraulic Power Company, with a ring of lettering giving the original date of construction and naming the LHPC. The entrance on the south bank of the Thames was demolished in the 1990s, and a new one has been built in its place.[ It is located just behind the ]Unicorn Theatre
The Unicorn Theatre is a children's theatre in the London Borough of Southwark, in England. It is a custom-built, RIBA Award–winning building on Tooley Street, which opened in 2005. The theatre was designed by Keith Williams, built by Arup an ...
on Tooley Street
Tooley Street is a road in central and south London connecting London Bridge to St Saviour's Dock; it runs past Tower Bridge on the Southwark/Bermondsey side of the River Thames, and forms part of the A200 road. (.)
St Olave
The earliest na ...
, but there is no plaque to mark the site.
See also
*Tunnels underneath the River Thames
The table below lists many of the tunnels under the River Thames in and near London, which, thanks largely to its underlying bed of clay, is one of the most tunnelled cities in the world. The tunnels are used for road vehicles, pedestrians, Tub ...
*List of crossings of the River Thames
The River Thames is the second-longest river in the United Kingdom, passes through the capital city, and has many crossings.
Counting every channel – such as by its islands linked to only one bank – it is crossed by over 300 brid ...
References
External links
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{{Coord, 51, 30, 30, N, 0, 4, 44, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title
Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark
Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
History of the London Borough of Southwark
History of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Tunnels underneath the River Thames
2 ft 6 in gauge railways in England
Tunnels completed in 1869
Former toll tunnels
1869 establishments in England
Pedestrian tunnels in the United Kingdom