3-028-391 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Thames Subway at Tower-Hill: waiting-room, 1870. Tunnel under the River Thames in London, designed by William Henry Barlow. 'The subway [from Tower-hill to Tooley-street, Southwark] consists of a narrow tunnel uniting two vertical shafts...The shafts at each end of the tunnel are 60 ft. in depth...Within the shafts are lifts, carrying six passengers at once, and these lifts are raised and lowered by the same engines that work the drums...On reaching the bottom [the passengers] find a space of a few feet between the shaft and the buffers fitted up with benches, as a waiting-room. When the omnibus arrives and has discharged its load, those who are waiting step in and start off for the other end. The descent of the shaft occupies twenty-five seconds, and the omnibus journey seventy seconds; so that a passenger may descend into the shaft at Tower-hill and emerge in Vine-street in a minute and three quarters from the time of his descent...The lifts, as they only carry half as many passengers as the omnibus, will make twice as many journeys; and it is intended to give priority of ascent to first-class passengers, who pay twopence, while the second-class passengers pay one penny'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.