Subterranean London refers to a number ofsubterranean structures that lie beneathLondon. The city has been occupied by humans for two millennia. Over time, the capital has acquired a vast number of these structures and spaces, often as a result of war and conflict.
The RiverThames runs west–east through the centre of London. Many tributaries flow into it. Over time these changed from water sources to untreated sewers and disease sources.[1] As the city developed from a cluster of villages, many of the Thames tributaries wereburied or converted into canals.
The rivers failed to carry all thesewage of the growing metropolis. The resulting health crisis led to the creation of theLondon sewerage system (designed byJoseph Bazalgette) in the late nineteenth century. It was one of the world's first modern sewer systems and is still in use today, having been designed to account for the city's continued growth.
TheThames Water Ring Main is a notable large-scale water supply infrastructure, comprising 80 kilometres of wide-bore water-carrying tunnels.
TheThames Tideway Tunnel, due for completion in 2025, will be a deep tunnel 25 km (16 mi) long, running mostly under the tidal section of theRiver Thames through centralLondon to capture, store and convey almost all the rawsewage andrainwater that currently overflows into the river.
TheLondon Underground was the world's firstunderground railway and one of its most extensive. Its construction began in 1860 with the 3.7-mile (6.0 km) Metropolitan Railway fromFarringdon toPaddington. It opened in 1863, after much disruption from the use of "cut-and-cover" techniques that involved digging large trenches along the course of existing roads, and then constructing a roof over the excavation to reinstate the road surface.[2]
Tube railways, which caused less disruption because they were constructed by boring a tunnel, arrived in 1890, with the opening of theCity and South London Railway, a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) line from Stockwell to King William Street. It was planned as a cable-hauled railway, but the advent of electric traction resulted in a simpler solution, and the change was made before the cable system was built. It became the world's first electric tube railway.[3] Although the system includes 249 miles (401 km) of track, only about 45 percent is actually below ground.[4]
Kingsway has an almost intactunderground passageway for trams, which is occasionally open to the public.
Tunnels underneath the River Thames range from foot-tunnels to road tunnels and the tunnels of the Underground. The first of these, theThames Tunnel, designed byMarc Brunel, was the first tunnel known to cross under a navigable river. It ran for 1,200 yards (1,100 m) fromRotherhithe toWapping, and opened in 1843. It was used as a pedestrian subway, as the company did not have enough money or finance to build the intended access ramps for horse-drawn traffic. These tunnels were later used by the East London branch of the Metropolitan Railway fromShoreditch to New Cross.[2] It was refurbished in 2011 and became part of theLondon Overground network.[5]
Several railway stations have cavernous vaults and tunnels running beneath them, often disused, or reopened with a new purpose. Examples includeThe Old Vic Tunnels, beneathLondon Waterloo station, and the vaults beneathLondon Bridge station, formerly utilised by the theatre companyShunt.
Manyunderground military citadels were built under London. Few are acknowledged, and even fewer are open to the public. One exception is the famousCabinet War Rooms, used byWinston Churchill during theSecond World War.
During the war, parts of the Underground were converted intoair-raid shelters known asdeep-level shelters. Some were converted for military and civil defence use, such as the now-disusedKingsway telephone exchange.
Othercivil defence centres in London are wholly or partly underground, mostly remnants from theCold War. Many other subterranean facilities exist around the centre of government inWhitehall, often linked by tunnels.[6]
In December 1980, theNew Statesman revealed the existence of secret tunnels linking government buildings, which they claimed would be used in the event of a national emergency. It is believed these tunnels also link toBuckingham Palace.[7] AuthorDuncan Campbell discussed these facilities in more detail, in the bookWar Plan UK: The Truth about Civil Defence in Britain (1982).[8] Peter Laurie wrote a book about these facilities, titledBeneath the City Streets: A Private Inquiry into the Nuclear Preoccupations of Government (1970).[9]
London, like most other major cities, established an extensive underground infrastructure forelectricity distribution,natural gas supply,water supply andtelecommunications.
Starting in 1861, Victorian engineers built miles of purpose-built subways large enough to walk through, and through which they could run gas, electricity, water and hydraulic power pipes. These works removed the inconvenience of having to repeatedly excavate highways to allow access to underground utilities.[10]
Some underground structures are no longer in use. These include:
General topics:
Individual sites of interest: