If you walk up from Tower Millennium Pier towards tower hill on the left hand side you'll see a rather strange chimney looking structure with the words "Tower Subway" embossed around it. This is what's left of the entrance to the world's first "tube" railway that ran under the Thames linking the North (Tower hill) and South banks (off Tooley Street) via a railway that ran through the (410m long) circular tube. It was completed in 1870 and a cable hauled a wooden carriage from one end to the other along narrow gauge tracks, this didn't last long as it proved very unreliable, after a few months the railway was removed and the tunnel reopened as a foot tunnel. Once Tower bridge opened in 1894 demand for the service waned and it was sold off in 1898. Now the tunnel is used for water mains and communications cables.
Here's what it looked like back in the day,
And this (below) is the unassuming Southern entrance behind the Unicorn Theatre on Tooley St. a spot I pass frequently as my London office is a stone's throw from there in London Bridge.
PS I didn't miss the irony that there's a branch of "Subway" next to the Northern tunnel entrance!
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