The area was leased to a storage company in October for a while. It seems likely that there was once a plan that trolleybuses should pass through the tunnel. Trolleybus number was built especially for testing. Testing proved unsuccessful since trolleybuses would need to run on battery power when traveling through the tunnel, as headroom restriction precluded the use of overhead wires carrying current.
This bus had exits with folding door on both sides and went into normal service on other routes once the plan was abandoned. Trolleybus Number The LCC proposed using part of the tunnel for light traffic in June In the hope of reducing traffic congestion from Waterloo Bridge at The Strand, it was suggested that the southern region of the tunnel be used as an Underpass. Permission was granted in April and construction began on the conversion in September and the Strand Underpass was opened to traffic on 21st January, Kingsway Tramway Subway under Waterloo Bridge.
This area was converted into a Buddha Bar Restaurant. In early , I have heard that it is now up for sale. The gradient is still impressive with the roadway complete with tracks and conduit plunges down to the metal grill and then into the dark under Kingsway.
The region down to the old Aldwych station is currently abandoned although parts of it have been used from time to time including the housing of a portable building to serve as the Headquarters of Flood Control for the Greater London Council until the opening of the Thames Barrier in Photograph reproduced with permission of Nick Catford.
It has also been a storage area of old road signs belonging to the Camden Borough Council ; as a site-specific art installation called Chord by Conrad Shawcross between October and November ; and as a possible part of the Cross River Tram Project , which would have seen trams once again in Central London and linking north and south areas.
Sadly the project was canceled in Part of Chord by Conrad Shawcross Upper left. Crossrail is a proposed railway system of 73 miles kilometres currently under construction in South East England that will link the counties of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire with London and on to the county of Essex.
The rail system requires 31 miles 50 kilometres of new tunnels. A new railway tunnel is being constructed under the Kingsway Tunnel , which requires consolidation of the ground beneath it, hence the necessity to lease the northern section of the tunnel where a shaft has been sunk and grout introduced.
Apparently once the new Crossrail tunnel has been constructed, the contractors have said that they will return the Kingsway Tunnel to its present condition.
Crossrail employees at work building a tunnel under The Tunnel. One hopes that something will be done with this section of the tunnel in the future.
I would think that it would make an excellent adjunct to the Transport for London Museum. I cannot believe that they are displaying everything they have at their Covent Garden and Acton venues. I have always liked Kingsway. It was an impressive road and once the widest in London.
The first time I actually remember going there was when I was taken at a very young age to the Stoll Theatre to see Oklahoma! The Stoll was a magnificent theatre that graced this once elegant thoroughfare. Kingsway had been built in the early s as part of a major redevelopment of the area in order to clear the slums present between High Holborn and The Strand. It is hard to believe now that slums once covered this area of London. The theatre suffered from being out of the mainstream of theatres, but did present a number of successful productions before its closure on 4th August, and subsequent demolition.
The theatre was replaced by an office block with a smaller theatre in its basement. In addition to The Stoll, the road was once the site of the Kingsway Hall , a Methodist Chapel that also served as a concert hall and recording venue. Both of these glorious buildings have since been demolished and replaced by an office building with a small theatre-cum-cinema-cum-lecture hall in the case of the Stoll and a hotel in the case of Kingsway Hall.
Unfortunately, I do not have any photographs of Kingsway Hall. Those that do exist are apparently subject to copyright restriction.
From until his retirement in , Donald Soper was its superintendent. As a result, he grew up in a home where his parents held strict views against alcohol, gambling and blood sports, which he held throughout his life.
After seeing so much poverty in Britain, he became a socialist and he began fiercely preaching against capitalism, the arms trade, blood sports, child labour and the inadequate state help for the poor. Soper was a remarkable orator and during his tenure at Kingsway Hall, over attending service each Sunday morning and over 1, during the evening. These numbers continued up to the early s. He was a pacifist and in joined the Peace Pledge Union.
This led to his being banned from the BBC during the war years since he was considered too persuasive a preacher to be allowed on the radio. Soper retired in and the West London Mission moved to the church on Hindle Street in Marylebone with a branch in Kings Cross where a large Chinese contingent is among the congregation.
Although officially retired, Dr. Soper continued his criticism of society including the Royal Family for their love of horse racing. He died on 22nd December, Top middle: Dr. However, the building was in a poor state at this time, and since nothing significant about it could be found about it at this time, it was demolished in and the Kingsway Hall Hotel was built on the site. The site of the Kingsway Hall today. Like so much else today, what is left of Kingsway is but a mere shadow of its former self.
However, if you had asked father what it was about Kingsway that appealed to him, his answer, without hesitation, would have been the Kingsway Tramway Tunnel. Kingsway Tramway Subway in Silician Avenue Another great wonder of the area close to the Tramway entrance on Southampton Row is Sicilian Avenue This small walkway was built in and designed by Worleys and Armstrong.
It was originally named Vernon Arcade, but changed to Sicilian Avenue in , as a result of the Sicilian limestone used in its construction. Information provided by Camden Coucil, Local History. I have found that people who knew the old London trams either loved them or loathed them.
I was still very young when trams came to the end of their time on London streets and so memory of them is somewhat clouded and limited. While I was not especially fond of them, father found it a delight to ride on them. I found the tram and the journey on it to be somewhat frightening. Firstly, I found trams to be huge hulking vehicles and to be remarkably noisy; secondly, they shook and clattered as they moved along their tracks; and thirdly, the lighting was forever going off as they rumbled and clattered along.
However, what I disliked the most was when we stood at the Elephant and watched these great beasts lumber and splutter over the points. As its pole passed over the points at the junction of overhead wires, sparks would flash and fly and I always believed that the tram was about to explode in flames. Robert J. Harley showing a tram at Archway. These journeys to the Elephant meant a ride through the Kingsway Tunnel.
These photographs taken between and show the scale of the project and the challenging conditions faced by workers excavating the second road tunnel under the River Mersey. Kingsway was built to accommodate a big post-war increase in traffic that left the Queensway tunnel between Liverpool and Birkenhead struggling to cope. Work started with construction by hand of an 8ft high pilot tunnel through sandstone under the River Mersey.
It took about a year to complete. However conditions were very different to Pakistan and water mixed with grit to cause the Mersey Mole to break down mid-river.
The engineering endeavours underground were to be matched by the building, above ground, of the huge structures to house the equipment needed to ventilate the tunnel. As well as the ventilation buildings, Rowse designed the tunnel entrances with their associated structures and the tunnel lining, which had a dark purple Vitrolite dado framed in stainless steel, an exotic detail in a dark tunnel not immediately noticeable from a moving car. Rowse, in the face of the decoration-stripping young architects of the Modern Movement, chose to add many fine decorative touches to this essentially utilitarian building.
The building is faced in Portland stone. On the west side is a figure, once again by Thompson and Capstick, wearing helmet and goggles, representing Speed.
0コメント