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, Tube and railway lines and utilities. Several tunnels are over a century old: the original Thames Tunnel was the world's first underwater tunnel.
| East (downstream) to west (upstream) | Name | Type | Between... | Construction year | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thames Cable Tunnel | Utilities | Former Tilbury power station↔Eastcourt Marsh sealing end compound | 1970 | 1,675 metres long, carries two 400kV circuits;[1][2] depth 46 metres, only accessible by authorized personnel |
| 2 | High Speed 1 | Twin Rail Tunnels | Swanscombe, Kent↔West Thurrock, Essex | 2007 | |
| 3 | Dartford Tunnel | Twin Road Tunnels | 1963 | West Tunnel - 1963, East Tunnel - 1980 | |
| 4 | Dartford Cable Tunnel | Utilities | 2004 | ||
| 5 | Barking Cable Tunnel[3] | Utilities | Barking↔Thamesmead | ||
| 6 | Docklands Light Railway Tunnels | Rail | Woolwich Arsenal↔King George V | 2009 | |
| 7 | Crossrail Tunnels | Rail | Woolwich ↔ North Woolwich | 2015 | The tunnel construction was finished in 2015, they are due to begin rail service in 2020/21 |
| 8 | Woolwich foot tunnel | Foot[4] | Woolwich↔North Woolwich | 1912 | Maurice Fitzmaurice |
| 9 | Thames Barrier | Service | Woolwich ↔ North Woolwich | 1984 | Service tunnel only accessible by authorized personnel |
| 10 | Millennium Dome electricity cable tunnel[5] | Utilities | North Greenwich ↔ West Ham | 1999 | 2.8 metre diameter, only accessible by authorized personnel |
| 11 | London Underground Jubilee line Tunnels | Rail | North Greenwich↔Canning Town | 1999 | |
| 12 | Blackwall Tunnels | Road | North Greenwich↔Blackwall | 1897 | Second bore in 1967. Alexander Binnie |
| 13 | London Underground Jubilee line Tunnels | Rail | Canary Wharf↔North Greenwich | 1999 | |
| 14 | Docklands Light Railway Tunnels | Rail | Island Gardens↔Cutty Sark | 1999 | |
| 15 | Greenwich Foot Tunnel | Foot[4] | Millwall↔Greenwich | 1902 | Alexander Binnie |
| 16 | Deptford River Tunnel[6] | Utilities | Deptford↔Wapping | ||
| 17 | London Underground Jubilee line Tunnels | Rail | Canada Water↔Canary Wharf | 1999 | |
| 18 | Rotherhithe Tunnel | Road, cycle, foot | Rotherhithe↔Limehouse | 1908 | Maurice Fitzmaurice |
| 19 | Thames Tunnel | Rail | Wapping↔Rotherhithe | 1843 | Marc Brunel. The world's first underwater tunnel, now part of the Overground network. Originally a foot tunnel. |
| 20 | New Cross to Finsbury Market Cable Tunnel | Utilities | New Cross Substation - Wellclose Square Substation | 2017 | |
| 21 | Tower Subway | Utilities | 1870 | Peter W. Barlow and James Henry Greathead. The world's first underground tube railway. A rail tunnel for 3 months only, then a foot tunnel. Currently carries pipes and fibre-optic lines. | |
| 22 | London Underground Northern line Tunnels (City Branch) | Rail | London Bridge station↔Bank | 1900 | |
| 23 | City and South London Railway Tunnels | Disused | Borough↔King William Street | 1890 | Originally rail tunnels, now disused. The world's first electric tube railway, with tunnels only 10 feet 2 inches (3.10 m) in diameter, became disused in 1900 when new 11 feet 6 inches (3.51 m) tunnels to the east replaced them |
| 24 | London Underground Waterloo & City line Tunnels | Rail | 1898 | ||
| 25 | Bankside River Tunnel[7] | Utilities | Bankside↔Blackfriars | ||
| 26 | London Underground Northern line Tunnels (Charing Cross Branch) | Rail | 1926 | ||
| 27 | London Underground Bakerloo line Tunnels | Rail | 1906 | ||
| 28 | Bankside–Charing Cross[7] | Utilities | Bankside substation to Charing Cross substation, partly runs beneath Hungerford Bridge | ||
| 29 | London Underground Jubilee line Tunnels | Rail | Westminster↔Waterloo | 1999 | |
| 30 | London Underground Victoria line Tunnels | Rail | 1971 | ||
| 31 | Wimbledon - Pimlico Cable Tunnel[5] | Utility | 1996 | ||
| 32 | Battersea Power Station Tunnels | Utility | 1929 (est.) | 2 tunnels run under the Thames from the station and arrive on either side of Chelsea Bridge. A third tunnel used to carry steam under the Thames to the Churchill Gardens estate. | |
| 33 | London Power Tunnels | Utility | Wimbledon - Kensal Green | 2011 |
Other tunnels
The figure and list above leaves out a tunnel to the site of the old Ferranti power station on the east side of the mouth of Deptford Creek.
There is also a tunnel between Cottons centre and the old Billingsgate Fish Market near to London Bridge. Citibank used it for cabling at one point; it was large enough for a person to walk through.
The Silvertown Tunnel is a new Thames river crossing proposed to supplement the existing Blackwall Tunnel, which will join the Greenwich Peninsula with West Silvertown.
The Thames Tideway Tunnel, due for completion in 2025, will be a 25 km (16 mi) long tunnel running mostly under the tidal section of the River Thames through central London to capture, store and convey almost all the raw sewage and rainwater that currently overflows into the river.
Background
London's abundance of river tunnels has resulted from a number of factors. For historical reasons, the city centre has relatively few railway bridges (or for that matter main-line railway stations). Only three railway bridges exist in central London, only one of which provides through services across the capital. Consequently, railway builders have had to tunnel under the river in the city centre rather than bridge it. By contrast, railway bridges are relatively common to the west of the inner city.
Another historical factor has been the presence of the Port of London, which until the 1980s required large ships to be able to access the river as far upstream as the City of London. Until the construction of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge in 1991, the easternmost bridge on the Thames was Tower Bridge in central London. Even now, the Dartford Crossing provides the only way to cross the Thames by road between London and the sea (with predictable results for traffic congestion). The width of the river downstream meant that tunnels were the only options for crossings before improvements in technology allowed the construction of high bridges such as the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford.
See also
References
- ^ Haswell, C.K. (December 1969). "Thames Cable Tunnel". Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 44 (4): 323–340. doi:10.1680/iicep.1969.7250.
- ^ Anon (May 1970). "Cables Down Under". Electronics & Power. 16 (5): 175. doi:10.1049/ep.1970.0161.
- ^ "Open Infrastructure Map". Open Infrastructure Map. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
- ^ a b "Foot tunnels".
- ^ a b Knights, M.; Mathews, J. L. R.; Marshall, R. (August 2001). "Revealed: London's network of power tunnels". Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering. 144 (3): 121–127. doi:10.1680/cien.2001.144.3.121.
- ^ "Open Infrastructure Map". Open Infrastructure Map. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
- ^ a b "Open Infrastructure Map". Open Infrastructure Map. Retrieved 23 March 2020.