UNDERGROUND LONDON.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 278, 25 May 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

UNDERGROUND LONDON.

A FOUR-MILE WALK IN A SUBTERRANNEAiN CITY.

If you would see some of the wonders of London on which but a few privileged eyes ever look, let us in fancy make a little excursion together having first secured the permission of the Inspector of Subways, who will very) courteously act as our guide to tins unseen city beneath a city. j Passing through massive iron gates under Holborn Viaduct, we soon and ourselves in a maze of miniature streets whose silence is broken only by tne faint rumble of traffic over our heads. Above us the tide of London life rolls ceaselessly to and fro; this is a city which echoes to the footfall-as remote it seems, from the world of men as it it were in the moon. In the wake of our genial guide we walk along a high-vaulted passage well. paved and spotlessly clean and Wj3 gas-jets at frequent intervals. On each side of us run lines ot pipes, two ot which carry water and gas respectively for the use of the world above us. A third our cicerone tolls us, conveys water for hydraulic power; end in the troughs which run along the floor are the wires,of the Electric Lighting Company and the wlegraph wires oi tne General Post Office. The tube which streches along the vaulted roof on a levell with is that through which the written telegrams are pneumatically blown irom the district offices to the General Post Office for transmission to all parts or the world. This subterranean street is, in fact, one of the multitude of arteries through which the life-blood of tno London above us flows. As we continue our walk we hnd other streets branching off to Tight or left, each the counterpart ot a street familiar to us in the City overhead As our promenade continues we should be hopelessly lost it we did not see the names of the streets, printed in bold J capitate. Thus we know, without being. that we are now in Shoe Lane, with Little New Street branching off to our right, ,ow we find ourselves in Charterhouse Street St .Bride Street. Snow Hill, and so on tne traffic in the corresponding streets above rolling over our heads. CUTTING OFF SUPPLIES.

We can even tell precisely where wo arc in any particular street for, as wo Tass \e'can read the numbers of the houses above, on tho supply pipes which'pass to them from the mains by our Tide We could actually, rf we were permitted, cut off water or gas from any one of them by the turn ot a tap, S it is often done w.tnout warning by an official who .passes unseen along the suhwav, when the water-rate or gasbill remains unpaid. * When first plunged ™ to *» nether world of London wo wero proablv prepared to find ourselves gropn* along dark, dirty, undated nasWeV; but we have quickly found ow wrong this nnp.ess.on was These nderground City streets are faced mternally with white bricks, the noois are of York stone landings, and ai,e Perfectly drained by frequent openings' Smunicating wit.i the "W^J^l bv means of bell-traps. They are admiraUv ventilated by shafts rising from So crown of the arches to open gratn's in the streets overhead, or by flues Srrieduptotheroofsof^houjes^r t,. hollow lamp-posts. thus we can w nuor for hou?s if we will througTT the .Kith of subways with more phystfal comfort than in the streets of London we aro familiar with. At one point of our journey the pavement sounds hollow under our teet, and looking down, tnrough sec a busy station bonoath us; just over head our guide tells us, is a similar station. At another point the ground trembles, there is a roar swelling to a thunder of sound as a train rushes beneath our feet. Only a plate or non a quarter of an inch thick we are toid, is between us and a terrible death! Thus, in growing wonder wo wander tnrough this vast network of the underworld until at Last our guide calls a halt A shout from him causes a trapdoor in the roof to open mysteriously; and) ascending, we find ourselves m a crowded City street. Our strange and fascinating journey is ended and we have but a glimpse of orae part of the wonders of underground London.