“UNDERWORLD” LONDON

Evening Star, Issue 20140, 3 April 1929, Page 3

“UNDERWORLD” LONDON

RIVERS AND TUHKELS Thorn have roci’iitly been some n-itiior forcible reminders of the fact that, beneath the modern city, there is -.an “underworld” of tunnels, conduits,rind borings of all sorts. It is principally in' London Unit this “ underworld'’’ has been giving trouble ; lint il. exists in every town in greater or. less degree. . r , „ One interesting eruption m 1 nni.eit recently was that of the Vl’clbrook.• During building operations in Princes street'l bis old si ream, w'“cli M”V f ” s underground to the 1 homes, ">U broken into, and pumping nan learned out, d lie- Malbrook, luiwiwcivis always giving Iron tile—the whole ot. the aiea round'the .Mansion House,wliicTi ivas built almost, on the hank of the old .stream, has had to be piled and underpinned. The Fleet, another river which flows underground, is a stream which sometimes gives trouble. In wet weather it still'makes its appearance in tin* e(>llars of Farringdon street. Both tha Fleet and the AValbrook were onus quite important waterways. GAS AND AVATEII MAINS. Apart from the rivers, which hava been banished nn.dergi'oniid ior tli« convenience of the builders, there an* many tunnels beneath London, carrying gas and water mams and cables.. on Ibo whole, the safest way of disposing of pipes and cables, as tliev are less liable Pi damage and. more easily repaired il I bey are in -t runnel Ilian if limy are simply buried mi ibe ground. For this reason, an extension of the tunnel system is now being advocated. The longest ol the existing tunnels runs from near .Mansion Id cm so to a. ]inint near the Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Air and light arc admitted at certain points grarings. Another important part of London’s underworld is the pipes ot th® London Hydraulic Power Company, (vac of whoso mains broke and caused a flood in the Strand the other day. ■ 1 The water in these pipes is used tm operate cranes, .lifts, and hoists, and for other purposes. Some idea of th« extent to which London depends.-qu hydraulic power supplied in this way, rnav be gamed from the fact that them are ISB miles of these pipes under th® metropolis. But perhaps the most remarkable part of the great labyrinth uiidcriieal.ii London’s surface is i lie sewer .system. There are .‘I9U miles of main sewers billow London —or enough, if placed dn a straight line, to run north to Edinburgh. For the most part, the main sowers are tunnels big enough to accommodate a train, with canals running through them. Over .1,000 men are in constant employment in the sewers and on other, services connected with the .system,which cost about £BOO,OOO a year. '.I ho men working underground may not. have a very pleasant job, hut they seem to find it healthy enough, dho biggest risk in sewer work is the stirF den rush of water which may occur in. a storm, and there are always look-out men on duty to guard against a surprise of this kind. Once, however,, some years ago, four men, who could not he warned in time, were caught by flood waters and swept away, two of them being drowned. Bather more romantic than the London tunnels and sewers are the ancient underground passages which exist below one part, of Manchester. This is the Corporation street and _ Market street district. They have, existed foe centuries, and nobody nowadays seems to know for what, purpose they wer» originally intended. So they remain as an interesting puzzle for antiquarians, as well as an annoying boobytrap for tho workmen who sometimes fall into Jhem, r