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, Underground and railway lines and utilities. Several tunnels are over a century old: the original Thames Tunnel was the world's first underwater tunnel.
Name | Type | Between | Opened | Carries | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Thames Cable Tunnel | Utility tunnel | Former Tilbury power station↔Eastcourt Marsh sealing end compound | 1970 | Power cable | 1,675 metres (5,495 ft) long, carries two 400 kV circuits; [1] [2] depth 46 metres (151 ft), only accessible by authorised personnel |
High Speed 1 tunnels | Railway tunnel | West Thurrock, Swanscombe | 2007 | High Speed 1 | |
Dartford Tunnel (eastern) | Road tunnel | May 1980 | A282 road | ||
Dartford Tunnel (western) | Road tunnel | 18 Nov 1963 | A282 road, European route E15 | ||
Dartford Cable Tunnel | Utility tunnel | 2005 | Power cable | ||
Barking cable tunnel | Utility tunnel [3] | Barking, Thamesmead | 1920s [4] | Power cable | |
Docklands Light Railway tunnel | Railway tunnel | King George V, Woolwich Arsenal | 2009 | Docklands Light Railway | |
Crossrail tunnels | Railway tunnel | Woolwich, North Woolwich | 2014 [5] | Elizabeth line | Tunnel construction completed in 2015; rail service began 24 May 2022. [6] |
Woolwich foot tunnel | Pedestrian tunnel [7] | Woolwich, North Woolwich | 26 Oct 1912 | Footpath | The chief engineer was Maurice Fitzmaurice. |
Thames Barrier | Flood barrier | Woolwich, North Woolwich | 1984 | Service tunnel only accessible by authorised personnel. | |
Millennium Dome cable tunnel | Utility tunnel [8] | Millennium Dome, West Ham | 1999 [9] | Power cable | 2.8-metre (9 ft 2 in) diameter, only accessible by authorised personnel |
Jubilee line tunnels | Railway tunnel | North Greenwich tube station, Canning Town | 1999 | Jubilee line | |
Blackwall Tunnel (eastern) | Road tunnel | 1967 | A102 road | ||
Blackwall Tunnel (western) | Road tunnel | London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Royal Borough of Greenwich | 22 May 1897 [10] | A102 road | Engineer was Alexander Binnie. |
Isle of Dogs Jubilee line tunnels | Railway tunnel | Canary Wharf tube station, North Greenwich tube station | 1999 | Jubilee line | |
Docklands Light Railway tunnel | Railway tunnel | Island Gardens, Cutty Sark | 1999 | Docklands Light Railway | |
Greenwich foot tunnel | Pedestrian tunnel [7] | Millwall, Greenwich | 1899 | Footpath | The chief engineer was Alexander Binnie. |
Deptford cable tunnel | Utility tunnel [11] | Deptford, Wapping | Power cable | ||
Jubilee line tunnels | Railway tunnel | Canada Water station, Canary Wharf tube station | 1999 | Jubilee line | |
Rotherhithe Tunnel | Road tunnel, pedestrian tunnel | Rotherhithe, Limehouse | 12 Jun 1908 | A101 road | The chief engineer was Maurice Fitzmaurice. |
Thames Tunnel | Railway tunnel | Wapping, Rotherhithe | 1843 | East London line, London Overground | Marc Brunel. The world's first underwater tunnel, now part of the Overground network. Originally a foot tunnel. |
New Cross to Finsbury Market Cable Tunnel | Utility tunnel | New Cross Substation - Wellclose Square Substation | 2017 | Power cable | |
Tower Subway | Utility tunnel, tube railway, pedestrian tunnel | 2 Aug 1870 | Water pipe, optical fiber | 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. | |
Northern Line (Bank branch) tunnels | Railway tunnel | London Bridge tube station, Bank and Monument stations | 1900 | Northern line (Bank branch) | |
City & South London Railway tunnels | Railway tunnel | Borough tube station, King William Street tube station | 1890 | City and South London Railway | 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-foot-6-inch (3.51 m) tunnels to the east replaced them |
Waterloo & City line tunnels | Railway tunnel | Bank and Monument stations, Waterloo tube station | 1898 | Waterloo & City line | |
Bankside Cable Tunnel | Utility tunnel [12] | Bankside, Blackfriars | 1940s | Power cable | |
Northern line (Charing Cross branch) tunnels | Railway tunnel | Waterloo tube station, Embankment tube station | 1926 | Northern line (Charing Cross branch) | |
Bakerloo line tunnels | Railway tunnel | Waterloo tube station, Embankment tube station | 1906 | Bakerloo line | |
Bankside–Charing Cross cable tunnel | Utility tunnel [12] | Bankside substation to Charing Cross substation, partly runs beneath Hungerford Bridge | Power cable | ||
Jubilee Line Extension tunnels | Railway tunnel | Waterloo tube station, Westminster tube station | 1999 | Jubilee line | |
Victoria line tunnels | Railway tunnel | Vauxhall tube station, Pimlico tube station | 1971 | Victoria line | |
Wimbledon – Pimlico cable tunnel | Utility tunnel [8] | 1996 | Power cable | ||
Battersea steam tunnel | Utility tunnel | Battersea, Pimlico | 20th century | Water pipe | Used to carry steam under the Thames to the Churchill Gardens estate. |
Battersea exhaust tunnels | Utility tunnel | Battersea, Pimlico | 1920s | Two tunnels run under the Thames from the station and arrive on either side of Chelsea Bridge. | |
London Power Tunnels | Utility tunnel | Wimbledon, Kensal Green | 2018, 2011 | Power cable |
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. [ citation needed ]
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.
London's abundance of river tunnels has resulted from a number of factors. For historical reasons,[ clarification needed ] the city centre has relatively few railway bridges. 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 at Dartford 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. 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.
The Dartford–Thurrock River Crossing, commonly known as the Dartford Crossing and until 1991 the Dartford Tunnel, is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, carrying the A282 road between Dartford in Kent in the south and Thurrock in Essex in the north.
Subterranean London refers to a number of subterranean structures that lie beneath London. 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.
Crossrail was a railway construction project centred around London. It aimed to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway lines terminating in London: the Great Western Main Line and the Great Eastern Main Line. The project was approved in 2007, and construction began in 2009 on the central section and connections to existing lines that became part of the route, which has been named the Elizabeth line in honour of Queen Elizabeth II who opened the line on 17 May 2022 during her Platinum Jubilee. The central section of the line between Paddington and Abbey Wood opened on 24 May 2022, with 12 trains per hour running in each direction through the core section in Central London.
Silvertown is a district in the London Borough of Newham, in east London, England. It lies on the north bank of the Thames and was historically part of the parishes of West Ham and East Ham, hundred of Becontree, and the historic county of Essex. Since 1965, Silvertown has been part of the London Borough of Newham, a local government district of Greater London. It forms part of the London E16 postcode district along with Canning Town and Custom House.
The Blackwall Tunnel is a pair of road tunnels underneath the River Thames in east London, England, linking the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and part of the A102 road. The northern portal lies just south of the East India Dock Road (A13) in Blackwall; the southern entrances are just south of The O2 on the Greenwich Peninsula. The road is managed by Transport for London (TfL).
Royal Docks is an area and a ward in the London Borough of Newham in the London Docklands in East London, England.
The Thames Gateway Bridge was a proposed crossing over the River Thames in east London, England. It was first mooted in the 1970s but never came to fruition. The concept was re-proposed in 2004, with preliminary planning proceeding until November 2008, when Boris Johnson, the then Mayor of London, formally cancelled the entire £500 million scheme.
Maidenhead Railway Bridge, also known as Maidenhead Viaduct and The Sounding Arch, carries the Great Western Main Line (GWML) over the River Thames between Maidenhead, Berkshire and Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England. It is a single structure of two tall wide red brick arches buttressed by two over-land smaller arches. It crosses the river on the Maidenhead-Bray Reach which is between Boulter's Lock and Bray Lock and is near-centrally rooted in the downstream end of a very small island.
Silvertown railway station was on the North London Line (NLL) serving the Silvertown area of east London, the station and the eastern section of the line it was on were closed in 2006. It was situated between Custom House and North Woolwich, the eastern terminus of the line.
East London is the northeastern part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of railways in the 19th century encouraged the eastward expansion of the East End of London and a proliferation of new suburbs. The industrial lands of East London are today an area of regeneration, which are well advanced in places such as Canary Wharf and ongoing elsewhere.
Mott, Hay and Anderson (MHA) was a successful 20th century firm of consulting civil engineers based in the United Kingdom. The company traded until 1989, when it merged with Sir M MacDonald & Partners to form Mott MacDonald.
The Silvertown Tunnel is a road tunnel under construction beneath the River Thames between the Greenwich Peninsula and west Silvertown.
The Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway in east London connected the Royal Docks with the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR). Authorised in 1844, it opened in 1846, and was absorbed by the ECR in 1847. The ECR amalgamated with other railways to form the Great Eastern Railway in 1862.
The Lower Thames Crossing is a proposed road crossing of the Thames estuary downstream of the Dartford Crossing that links the counties of Kent and Essex, and its proposed approaches. If built it would pass through the districts of Thurrock and Gravesham, supplementing the Dartford route. The approximately 14.3-mile (23.0 km) route is being assessed by the Planning Inspectorate.
The Gallions Reach Crossing was a proposed River Thames crossing close to Gallions Reach in East London, running between Beckton in the London Borough of Newham and Thamesmead in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Originally a proposed ferry crossing replacing the Woolwich Ferry, later plans suggested either a bridge or a tunnel.
The Docklands Light Railway extension to Thamesmead is a proposed Docklands Light Railway (DLR) extension to serve the Beckton Riverside and Thamesmead redevelopment areas of East London.
Powerline river crossings comprise both overhead lines and cable tunnels beneath rivers and estuaries. Overhead power lines are supported on towers which are usually significantly taller than overland pylons and are more widely spaced to cross the river in a single span. Tall pylons ensure that the electricity cables which they support provide an adequate safety clearance for river traffic.
The Thames Cable Tunnel, also known as the Tilbury – Gravesend Cable Tunnel, is a tunnel carrying high-voltage electrical transmission lines beneath the lower River Thames between Tilbury and Gravesend. It remains the furthest tunnel downstream on the Thames.
The River Medway Cable Tunnels are a pair of tunnels carrying high-voltage electricity transmission lines beneath the lower River Medway between the Isle of Grain and Chetney Marshes, Kent.