Reigate Tunnel is a former

road tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'', and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The ea ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England. It runs under the hill that was once the site of

Reigate Castle Reigate Castle is a former castle in the town of Reigate in the county of Surrey, England. None of the castle buildings survive today, but a cave below the site, considered to be part of the castle, still exists. Known as "Baron's Cave", it is o ...

and was built during 1823, although some sources report that it only opened in 1824. The narrow and short tunnel formerly carried the

A217 road The A217 is a road in Greater London, London and Surrey in England. It runs north–south. It runs from Kings Road in Fulham, London, crosses the Thames at Wandsworth Bridge, then passes through Wandsworth, Earlsfield, Summerstown, London, Sum ...

, and is now pedestrianised. It is grade II listed.

History

The tunnel was designed by William Constable, the surveyor for the Reigate

Turnpike Trust Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road toll road, tolls for maintaining the principal roads in Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain from the 17th ...

. It is long and runs through the Folkestone Beds beneath

. It provides a direct link between the High Street (to the south) and London Road (to the north), reducing the distance between the two by . Construction began in 1823 and required the demolition of two shops on the north side of the High Street. The two portals were built with bricks made from the local

Gault The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in Fo ...

clay and the tunnel is lined with red brick in a

stretcher bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and Mortar (masonry), mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''Course (architecture), courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks ...

. The work was funded by

John Cocks, 1st Earl Somers John Somers Cocks, 1st Earl Somers ( ; 6 May 1760 – 5 January 1841), known as the Lord Somers between 1806 and 1821, was a British peer and politician. Background and education Somers was the son of Charles Cocks, 1st Baron Somers, and Elizab ...

, through whose land it ran, and was completed in the summer of 1824. A toll post was erected at the southern entrance and tolls were levied for horses and horse-drawn vehicles. Pedestrians were not charged for using the tunnel. The tolls were removed in 1858. In 1954, the tunnel was closed to southbound motor traffic and was fully

pedestrianised Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or ...

in April 1970. It was Grade II listed on 27 January 1989. A plaque above the southern entrance gives the year of construction as 1823.

References

{{reflist Road tunnels in England Pedestrian tunnels in the United Kingdom 1820s establishments in England Roads in Surrey

Tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

Grade II listed buildings in Surrey Tunnels in Surrey