View source for Tower Subway

{{Short description|Tunnel beneath the River Thames in Central London, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2015}}
[[File:Tower subway map.gif|250px|thumb|Location of the Tower Subway (1895)]]

The '''Tower Subway''' is a tunnel beneath the [[River Thames]] in [[central London]], between [[Tower Hill, London|Tower Hill]] on the north bank of the river and Vine Lane (off [[Tooley Street]]) on the south. In 1869 a {{convert|1340|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} circular tunnel was dug through the [[London clay]] using a cast iron circular [[Tunnelling shield|shield]] independently invented and built by [[James Henry Greathead]], similar to an idea that had been patented in 1864 by [[Peter W. Barlow]] but never built.<ref name="Copperthwaite20">{{cite book|last1=Copperthwaite|first1=William Charles|title=Tunnel shields and the use of compressed air in subaqueous works|date=1906|publisher=Van Nostrand Co|location=New York|page=20 |edition=1 |chapter=The Shield: Its Early History, 1818 to 1880|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009260636|access-date=21 May 2018|hdl=2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t2r49hs0g}}</ref>

A {{RailGauge|2ft6in|lk=on}} [[narrow-gauge railway]] was laid in the tunnel and from August 1870, a cable-hauled wooden carriage conveyed passengers from one end to the other. This was not a financial success, however, 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 [[Halfpenny (British pre-decimal coin)|ha'penny]]. The opening of the toll-free [[Tower Bridge]] nearby in 1894 caused a drop in income and the tunnel closed in 1898, after being sold to the [[London Hydraulic Power Company]]. Today the tunnel is used for water mains and telecommunications cables.

The same shield method of construction was used in 1890 to dig the tunnels of the [[City and South London Railway]], the first of London's electrified "[[London Underground|Tube]]" railways and the first underground [[Railway electrification|electrified railway]] in the world.<ref name="Wright1">{{cite journal|last1=Wright|first1=Laurence|title=James Henry Greathead and the London Underground|journal=Literator|date=24 July 2017|volume=38|issue=1|page=12|doi=10.4102/lit.v38i1.1324|doi-access=free}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Construction ===
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Tower Subway Act 1868
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to authorize the Construction of a Subway under the Thames from Tower Hill to the opposite Side of the River.
| year                  = 1868
| citation              = [[31 & 32 Vict.]] c. viii
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 29 May 1868
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = current
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Vict/31-32/8/pdfs/ukla_18680008_en.pdf
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = {{visible anchor|Tower Subway (Capital) Act 1871}}
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to enable the Tower Subway Company to raise additional Capital.
| year                  = 1871
| citation              = [[34 & 35 Vict.]] c. vii
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 25 May 1871
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Vict/34-35/7/pdfs/ukla_18710007_en.pdf
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
In 1864, Peter Barlow applied for a patent design of a circular [[cast iron]] shield for tunnelling to fill the gap between the tunnel lining and wall with [[Lime (material)|lime]] or cement to prevent settling of the surrounding ground.<ref name="C&J">{{cite book |last1=Croome |first1=D. |title=Rails Through The Clay&nbsp;– A History of London's Tube Railways |last2=Jackson |first2=A |publisher=Capital Transport |year=1993 |isbn=978-1-85414-151-4 |edition=2nd |pages=12–13}}</ref>  Unfortunately, Barlow failed to explain how he intended to fill such gaps between shield and tunnel wall with grout and he never constructed it before his death. Greathead, however, invented a device to inject the grout and was accredited with the first shield construction for what is now known as the [[Tower Gateway]] complex in 1869.<ref name="Copperthwaite">{{cite book |last1=Copperthwaite |first1=William Charles |title=Tunnel shields and the use of compressed air in subaqueous works, With 260 illustrations and diagrams. |date=1906 |publisher=Van Nostrand Co |edition=1 |location=New York |page=20}}</ref> 

Barlow published a pamphlet in 1867, "On the Relief of London Street Traffic", suggesting a network of tunnels with cars carrying up to twelve people.<ref>{{Cite book |last=British Association for the Advancement of Science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3dMOAQAAMAAJ&dq=Barlow+published+a+pamphlet+in+1867&pg=PA534 |title=Report of the ... Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science |publisher=J. Murray |year=1892 |pages=534 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="D&R" /> In 1868, authority was obtained in the '''{{visible anchor|Tower Subway Act 1868}}''' ([[31 & 32 Vict.]] c. viii) for a tunnel under the Thames between Great Tower Hill and Pickle Herring Stairs near Vine Street (now Vine Lane),<ref>31 & 32 Vict c.viii</ref><ref name="C&J" /><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33862 |date=June 1868 |page=3122}}</ref> but there was a delay finding a contractor after experiences with the [[Thames Tunnel]] until his former pupil [[James Henry Greathead]] tendered for £9,400.<ref name="C&J" />  

According to [[William Charles Copperthwaite]], who once studied and worked under Greathead,<ref name="Copperthwaite" /> both Greathead in England, and [[Alfred Ely Beach]] in New York, invented and constructed their own versions of tunnelling shields simultaneously and independently of each other.<ref name="Copperthwaite" /> Beach used a circular shield remarkably similar to [[Peter W. Barlow]]'s patent application design. This would not have been an unexpected event as Beach oversaw a successful patent agency<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-first-subway-in-new-york-city-was-a-cylindrical-car-pushed-by-air/ | title=The First Subway in New York City Was a Cylindrical Car Pushed by Air | website=[[Scientific American]] | date=September 2020 }}</ref> in [[New York City|New York]] as the editor of ''[[The Scientific American]]'', and may well have heard of Tower Subway developments in London and found Barlow's patent application.

Work on the Tower Subway began in February 1869 with the boring of entrance shafts,<ref name=subbrit/> {{convert|60|ft}} deep on the north bank and {{convert|50|ft}} deep on the south bank. The tunnelling itself started in April using the circular [[James Henry Greathead#Greathead Shield|Greathead shield]].

Whilst many argue that the shield used was a "Barlow–Greathead" shield, William Copperthwaite says "... in 1868 [Barlow] 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."<ref name="Copperthwaite20"/> 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.<ref name="Copperthwaite20" /> Barlow lost out on credit because he never actually constructed one, only patenting the idea.<ref name="Copperthwaite20" /> 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]] paper on the City and South London Railway acknowledged by Barlow.<ref name="Copperthwaite20" />

A tunnel {{convert|1340|ft}} long was dug with a diameter of {{convert|6|ft|7+3/4|in}},<ref name="C&J"/> a maximum of {{convert|66|ft}} below the high-water level.<ref name="D&R"/> This was bored through a stable layer of the London clay that lay {{convert|22|ft|0}} below the river bed, below the soft alluvial deposits that had plagued the construction by [[Marc Isambard Brunel|Brunel]] of the earlier Thames Tunnel. This, combined with the simpler nature of the project&nbsp;– the excavation face was only one twentieth that of the Thames Tunnel&nbsp;– enabled faster progress.<ref name="west"/> Screw jacks drove the shield forward at a rate of {{convert|37|ft|4|in}} each week.<ref name="C&J69">{{cite book|last1=Croome|first1=D.|last2=Jackson|first2=A|title=Rails Through The Clay&nbsp;– A History of London's Tube Railways|edition=2nd|year=1993|publisher=Capital Transport|isbn=978-1-85414-151-4|page=69}}</ref> The under-river section was dug in fourteen weeks and the tunnel completed in December 1869.<ref name="west">{{cite book|first=Graham|last=West|title=Innovation and the Rise of the Tunnelling Industry|page=117|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1988|isbn=978-0-521-33512-6}}</ref>

=== Cable railway ===
[[File:Tower subway carriage.jpg|thumb|Interior of the Tower Subway cable car, 1870]]
The entrance shafts were fitted with steam-powered lifts for passengers. The tunnel was laid with {{RailGauge|2ft6in}} gauge railway track and a single car, carrying a maximum of 12 passengers, cable-hauled by two {{convert|4|hp|adj=on}} [[stationary steam engine]]s, one on each side of the river.

The tunnel was completed by February 1870, and a press launch was held the following April.<ref name=subbrit/><ref>{{cite book |first=Walter |last=Thornbury |author-link=George Walter Thornbury |chapter=The Tower Subway and London Docks |title=Old and New London: Volume 2 |location=London |date=1878 |pages=122–128 |via=[[British History Online]] |chapter-url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol2/pp122-128 |access-date=12 March 2022 |publisher=Cassell, Petter & Galpin, London}}</ref> The underground railway opened for public use on 2 August 1870<ref name="C&J"/><ref name=D&R>{{cite book |last1=Day |first1=John R. |last2=Reed |first2=John |title=The Story of London's Underground|edition=10th|year=2008|orig-date=1963|publisher=Capital Transport|isbn=978-1-85414-316-7|pages=38–39}}</ref> charging 2[[£sd|d]] for first class and 1d for second class, first class ticket holders merely having priority for the lifts and when boarding.<ref name=Wolmar>{{cite book |last=Wolmar |first=Christian |author-link=Christian Wolmar |year=2004 |title=The Subterranean Railway: how the London Underground was built and how it changed the city forever|page=163|publisher=Atlantic|isbn=978-1-84354-023-6}}</ref> 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.<ref name="C&J"/><ref name=subbrit/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/39379/39379-h/39379-h.htm |pages=101–102 |date=1873 |publisher=William Collins, Sons and Company |title=Collins' Illustrated Guide to London and Neighbourhood}}</ref>

=== Foot tunnel ===
[[File:Tower Subway 1870.jpg|thumb|The Tower Subway in 1870]]
The railcar and steam engines were removed, [[gaslight]]s installed and the passenger lifts replaced with spiral staircases. The tunnel opened to pedestrians on 24 December 1870<ref name=subbrit>{{cite web |url=https://www.subbrit.org.uk/sites/tower-subway/ |title=Tower Subway |website=Subterranea Britannica |first=Andy |last=Emmerson}}</ref> at a toll of {{fract|1|2}}d<ref name="Wolmar"/> and became a popular way to cross the river, averaging 20,000 people a week (one million a year).<ref name="west" /> Its main users were described as "the working classes who were formerly entirely dependent on the ferries".<ref name="smith" /> 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]] was committing murders in nearby [[Whitechapel]].<ref>Patricia Cornwell, ''Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper&nbsp;– Case Closed'', p. 198. Berkeley Books, 2003. {{ISBN|0-425-19273-3}}</ref>

In his ''[[Dickens's Dictionary of London|Dictionary of London]]'', [[Charles Dickens Jr]] 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."<ref>{{cite web |last=Dickens |first=Charles Jr. |year=1879 |title=Tower Subway |work=[[Dickens's Dictionary of London]] |url=http://www.victorianlondon.org/thames/towersubway.htm |access-date=22 August 2007 |author-link=Charles Dickens, Jr.}}</ref>

The Italian writer [[Edmondo De Amicis]] (1846–1908) gave a description of a passage through the subway in his ''Jottings about London'':

{{quote|
As I was thinking of these things I disappeared from the world indeed, going down a lighted spiral staircase which buries itself in the earth on the right bank of the Thames, opposite the [[Tower of London|Tower]]. I went down and down between two dingy walls until I found myself at the round opening of the gigantic iron tube, which seems to undulate like a great intestine in the enormous belly of the river. The inside of this tube presents the appearance of a subterranean corridor, of which the end is invisible. It is lighted by a row of lights as far as you can see, which shed a veiled light, like sepulchral lamps; the atmosphere is foggy; you go along considerable stretches without meeting a soul; the walls sweat like those of an aqueduct; the floor moves under your feet like the deck of a vessel; the steps and voices of the people coming the other way give forth a cavernous sound, and are heard before you see the people, and they at a distance seem like great shadows; there is, in short, a sort of something mysterious, which without alarming causes in your heart a vague sense of disquiet. When then you have reached the middle and no longer see the end in either direction, and feel the silence of a catacomb, and know not how much farther you must go, and reflect that in the water beneath, in the obscure depths of the river, is where suicides meet death, and that over your head vessels are passing, and that if a crack should open in the wall you would not even have the time to recommend your soul to God, in that moment how lovely seems the sun!

I believe I had come a good part of a mile when I reached the opposite opening on the left bank of the Thames; I went up a staircase, the mate of the other, and came out in front of the Tower of London.<ref>{{cite web |last=De Amicis |first=Edmondo |date=1883 |title=Tower Subway excerpt |work=Jottings about London (Ricordi di Londra, 1874) |url=http://www.victorianlondon.org/thames/towersubway.htm |access-date=22 August 2007 |author-link=Edmondo De Amicis}}</ref>}}

[[File:Tower subway 1.jpg|right|thumb|Tower Subway northern entrance building at Tower Hill. (January 2006). Built by the LHPC in 1926, the lettering on the visible side reads "{{sc|constructed a.d. 1868 · london}}".]]

[[File:Tower subway southern entrance.jpg|thumb|Locked entrance to the Tower Subway on the South Bank]]

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Tower Subway Act 1897
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = 
| year                  = 1897
| citation              = [[60 & 61 Vict.]] c.xcvii
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = 
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
In 1894 the toll-free [[Tower Bridge]] opened a few hundred yards downriver, causing a drop in the subway's income. The Tower Bridge Subway Company sued the [[Corporation of London]] for £30,000 for loss of revenue. Engineer [[Edward Cruttwell]] was a key witness in the arbitration arguing that the claim was unfounded with the subway being in a "very neglected condition."<ref>{{Cite news |date=18 January 1896 |title=The Tower Bridge and the Thames Tunnel - Remarkable Claim for Compensation |work=St James's Gazette |pages=6}}</ref>

In 1897, Parliament passed a local act, the '''{{visible anchor|Tower Subway Act 1897}}''' ([[60 & 61 Vict.]] c.xcvii) authorising the sale of the tunnel to the [[London Hydraulic Power Company]] (LHPC) for £3,000 (worth over £{{Formatprice|{{Inflation|UK|3000|1897|{{inflation-year|UK}}|r=0}}}} in {{inflation-year|UK}}{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}), and the subway closed to pedestrian traffic in 1898.<ref name="smith">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Denis |title= Civil Engineering Heritage: London and the Thames Valley |publisher=Thomas Telford |year=2001 |pages=22–23 |isbn=978-0-7277-2876-0}}</ref>

=== Utility tunnel ===
After its closure, the tunnel gained a new purpose as a route for [[hydraulic power network|hydraulic power]] mains operated by the LHPC and for [[water main]]s. It was damaged during the [[Second World War]] when a German bomb fell in the river near [[Tower Millennium Pier|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  {{convert|4|ft}} at the point of impact, but the tunnel's lining was not penetrated. During the course of repair work, it was found that&nbsp;– apart from the bomb damage&nbsp;– the tunnel had survived seventy years of use in excellent condition.<ref name="west" />

== The subway today ==
While it is no longer used for hydraulic tubes, the tunnel still carries water mains.<ref name=historicUK>{{cite web |title=Tower Subway – Part of the Secret London series |url=https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/Tower-Subway/ |website=Historic UK |access-date=19 March 2020}}</ref> The hydraulic tubes, once a major source of power in the centre of London, have since been replaced by fibre optic [[telecommunications]] links.<ref>{{cite web |website=Thames Discovery Programme |title=The Tower Subway |url=http://www.thamesdiscovery.org/frog-blog/the-tower-subway |access-date=19 March 2020 |date=15 April 2010}}</ref>

A small round entrance building survives at Tower Hill near the [[Tower of London]]'s ticket office, a short distance to the west of the main entrance to the Tower.<ref name=LostBrit>{{cite book |title=Lost Britain: An A–Z of Forgotten Landmarks and Lost Traditions |date= 2015 |publisher=Michael O'Mara Books |isbn=978-1-78243-441-2 |oclc=946931884 |chapter=Hydraulic Power Company}}</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2022}} 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tower Subway (London) Opened |url=https://www.bookofdaystales.com/tower-subway-london-opened/ |website=Book of Days Tales |access-date=19 March 2020 |date=2 August 2013}}</ref> The entrance on the south bank of the Thames was demolished in the 1990s, and a new one has been built in its place.<ref name=historicUK/><ref name=subbrit/> It is located just behind the [[Unicorn Theatre]] on [[Tooley Street]], but there is no plaque to mark the site.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tower Subway below Thames 'not worth listing' – English Heritage |url=https://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/6661 |website=London SE1 |access-date=19 March 2020 |date=28 February 2013}}</ref>

A video inside the tunnel from the current owners, Vodafone, was released in February 2023.<ref>{{cite web |title=Rare film from inside the Tower Subway tunnel |url=https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/rare-film-from-inside-the-tower-subway-tunnel-61318/ |website=ianVisits |access-date=17 March 2023 |date=16 March 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Vodafone's mysterious tunnel |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY11tctPOnw |website=[[YouTube]] | date=16 February 2023 |publisher=[[Vodafone UK]] |access-date=16 March 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Tunnels underneath the River Thames]]
*[[List of crossings of the River Thames]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/making_history/making_history_spring2003.shtml |series=Making History |title=Programme 3: The Tower Subway – the tunnel that Tower Bridge replaced |date=15 April 2003  |website=BBC Radio 4}}
* {{cite web |url=http://perso.club-internet.fr/fdelaitre/Ths.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040218180043/http://perso.club-internet.fr/fdelaitre/Ths.htm |archive-date=2004-02-18 |title=Lost Subways: Tower Hill Subway}}
* {{cite web |url=http://lostindustry.org.uk/walktower1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050222190110/http://lostindustry.org.uk/walktower1.htm |archive-date=2005-02-22 |title=Lost Industry of Southwark}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.subbrit.org.uk/sites/tower-subway/ |title=Tower Subway |website=Subterranea Britannica}}
{{ThamesCrossings | west=[[Northern line]] tunnel
between [[Bank–Monument station|Bank]]
and [[London Bridge station|London Bridge]] | east=[[Tower Bridge]] }}

{{Authority control}}

{{Coord|51|30|30|N|0|4|44|W|region:GB_type:landmark|display=title}}

[[Category:Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]]
[[Category:History of the London Borough of Southwark]]
[[Category:History of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]]
[[Category:Tunnels underneath the River Thames]]
[[Category:2 ft 6 in gauge railways in England]]
[[Category:Tunnels completed in 1869]]
[[Category:Former toll tunnels]]
[[Category:1869 establishments in England]]
[[Category:Pedestrian tunnels in the United Kingdom]]