Welcome to Reconnections’ Friday Reads. This week’s lineup:
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- • London waterways Tube-style map, with sounds (SoundSurvey)
- • Overhead footbridges of London (Londonist)
- • Land Registry reveals London secret tunnels (Who Owns England)
- • Successful cities are clamping down on private cars & promoting bikes (TreeHugger)
- • World’s first tri-national tram system (CityLab)
- • Boston T’s Xmas Data Quiz even tougher than LR’s (MBTA)
- • Bus lane trial by traffic cone (StreetsBlog)
- • Campaign to rebuild New York’s Penn Station (Rebuild Penn Station)
- • Chicago O’Hare express train potential boondoggle (Chicago Reader)
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Re London’s secret tunnels.
I examined the detailed plans at Westminster station for the Jubilee line works as it was being built.
There was to be a new narrow tunnel going from the station at District line level(not the new Jubilee line level) directly under Whitehall to 10 Downing street. There was no writing on the plan to name or explain it.
It’s purpose seemed even clearer to me, when as part of the Jubilee work, the public subway from the District/ Circle station under Bridge street leading to a public exit next to parliament on the west side of Bridge street was sealed up & closed to the public without explanation after almost a century’s use. It used to continue underground into parliament with a barrier check to ensure only pass holders could carry on. The public now have to cross Bridge street braving the traffic.
MPs & their servants now have exclusive use of the tunnel into Parliament.
It seems obviously that, via the closed subway & the new works, 10 Downing Street now has direct pedestrian access to parliament built in the guise of Jubilee line works. Did it come from the inflated Jubilee line budget?
In the event of real trouble the PM & flunkeys will not need a motorcade to get in or out of parliament.
Jim Elson
Access for the public under Bridge Street from the station is available; though it may have been moved from its original location, and it can be easy to miss. On exiting the gateline, ignore the exit steps up to your left and bear further left, as if you were heading for the exit that gives directly onto the Embankment. Keep an eye out for a passageway on your right: this leads to an entrance available only to Palace of Westminster passholders, but to the left of this are publicly accessible steps up onto the upstream side of Bridge Street.
Most commuters not heading for Parliament ignore this exit in favour of crossing Bridge St on the level, using the crossing at the Parliament Square end – the majority are heading for buildings at that end of Victoria Street and around Marsham Street. For them, that way is quicker (unless unlucky with the lights), more direct and involves fewer steps. This leaves the pedestrian tunnel rather under-utilised. However the subway under the street remains useful for, e.g., the more able-bodied who are visiting St Thomas’ Hospital, tourist and other visitors.
re: London waterways Tube-style map
Nice idea, but not without errors. For example, two branches of the Wandle combine at Wilderness Island, with the Carshalton arm beginning at Carshalton Ponds in Grove Park while the Croydon arm begins at Wandle Park, not Waddon Ponds.