The Greenwich Foot Tunnel is 406 yards long, give or take a few inches. I went to school ‘over the water’, so I walked through the tunnel twice a day every school day for 7 years. Given that there are 195 school days per year in England, I walked through the tunnel for:
7 (years) x 195 (days) x 2 (times per day) x 406 = 1,108,380 yards
That’s approximately 630 miles, the distance from London to Prague, walking underwater……
[Some of you might be thinking “What about the days he was sick? Or didn’t go to school for some other reason?”. I also went through the tunnel on non-school days, and sometimes more than twice in a day, so I reckon that covers it.]
One of the earliest photos I ever took, in 1977, and one I am still proud of, was of the foot tunnel….
I’ve been chased into the tunnel by South London yobs. I’ve been involved in fights in the tunnel (occasionally with mate Mark Fairweather on the way home from school). I’ve had to make my way through a darkened tunnel because the lights had been vandalized after a disco boat full of Island teenagers had ended its journey at Greenwich Pier. I’ve cycled and skateboarded through the tunnel.
You could say that me and the tunnel go back a long way.
It was at the end of the 19th century that the LCC, the London County Council, first proposed to build a tunnel between the Island and Greenwich, as an alternative to the ferry.
A new free crossing would benefit working people on both sides of the river. Communications were so unreliable that some employers on the Island refused to allow their foremen and timekeepers to live on the southern bank because of delays at the ferry during foggy weather. The passenger steam-ferry from Greenwich Pier to North Greenwich Station was the only safe method of crossing the river at this point, but the penny toll amounted to an annual outlay of £2 12s – a considerable sum for the working men and women of the area. A new tunnel would also allow the inhabitants of the built-up industrial areas of Millwall and Cubitt Town to visit the more salubrious surroundings of Greenwich Park and Blackheath for recreation.
– Survey of London, Athlone Press
In 1896, the LCC accepted the tunnel plans proposed by their chief civil engineer Sir Alexander Richardson Binnie (1839-1917) whose Blackwall Tunnel engineering project was nearing completion (it opened in 1897). The construction contract was awarded to the firm J. Cochrane & Son, of Victoria Street, who tendered a price of of £109,500.
Thanks to an 1897 act of parliament which gave the go-ahead for the tunnel, the first physical act in preparation for its construction was the appropriation of an area of the recently-opened Island Gardens, officially opened by Councillor Will Crooks in 1895. This figure from “Survey of London” shows the extent of the loss; the original Island Gardens extended to the west wall of the present-day rowing club.
Tunnel Construction, 1901
Tunnel Construction, 1901
Contemporary newspaper reports envisaged the tunnel as follows:
A more accurate description was provided in an edition of “The Engineer”, published in 1902, the year of the tunnel opening (click for full-sized version):
Tunnel cross-section
The entrance building, which is now listed Grade II, has a porch built by the Island firm, Stuart’s Granolithic, whose works were in Glengall Road (the section now named Tiller Road).
The bronze tablet above the porch commemorates the completion of the tunnel works in 1902. One name on the tablet (and incorrectly spelled) is that of Sir John McDougall who was chairman of the LCC and a member of the famous flour milling family. The later Sir John McDougall Gardens would also be named after him.
There were plans to have a ceremonial and festive opening in 1902, but by the time of the opening the tunnel still had no sufficient electrical supply. This meant that the lifts were not operational and that the tunnel lighting was far less than desired. (It would be 1904 before a stronger electrical supply was connected.)
The tunnel was an immediate success, however. According to “Survey of London”:
By February 1905 over 9,000 people were using the tunnel weekly. The total cost of the work was £179,705, including over £58,000 for the acquisition of property and compensation for owners of ferry rights. The success of the foot tunnel marked the end of the ferry services. In 1904 the LCC completed the purchase of ferry rights and associated freehold lands from the London and Blackwall and Great Eastern Railway Companies.
Early 20th century postcard
1937
In the evening of 7th September 1940, the first day of The Blitz, serious damage was caused by a bomb which fell on the Island foreshore at low tide and penetrated the tunnel. The tunnel was closed during the repairs, which involved adding an extra steel internal sleeve.
1952
1952
Shortly after the bombing, some rowing boat owners offered to transport people over the Thames at 2/- per passenger – quite a steep price. A little later, a free ferry service was set up, operating between Johnson’s Draw Dock and Greenwich. A temporary pier was built across barges.
Temporary wooden pier
Temporary wooden pier
Temporary wooden pier
The dome glass was also shattered during the war, and would not be replaced until 1948.
c1948
Wikipedia:
A notice at the tunnel entrance states that the tunnel is private property and not a public right of way. Ordnance Survey maps do not show a right of way on the route of the tunnel. The tunnel is accessible by spiral staircases and large lifts that were refurbished between 2010 and 2012. A 2016 survey showed that around 4,000 people use the tunnel each day.
Jan Traylen, 1976
Iron Maiden music video, 1980s
Prospects TV Series, 1980s
The tunnel lifts used to be attendant-operated “from 7 am to 7 pm on weekdays and Saturdays, and 10 am to 5.30 pm on Sundays, with no service on Christmas Day or Boxing Day.”
Greenwich Council started work to upgrade the tunnel on 19 April 2010, intending to reduce leakage, improve drainage and install new lifts, CCTV, communication facilities and signage. Completion was planned for March 2011 but this slipped to September 2011.
Recent years have seen a lot of discussion about people who cycle in the tunnel. Greenwich Borough Council, who are responsible for running the tunnel, have not been too clear about whether they would tolerate it or not – despite all their signs to the contrary.
Architect Alex King created some captivating images of the tunnel and included them on his website, https://designstudioalexander.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/the-greenwich-foot-tunnel/.
But, despite the beauty of these drawings, most captivating for me was the comment on the website:
The Council surveyor for the tunnel informed me that the tunnel moves with the tide, “achieving a banana like shape when the tide is fully out”.
The tunnel has been open for 115 years now, and has hardly changed at all (apart, perhaps, from the replacement of the lifts and liftkeepers). In 2019, friends and family are still making their way through….
Isle of Dogs - Past Life, Past Lives 
My partner works in Greenwich and has done ever since we’ve lived on the island which is 15 years now.. so she’s been through there many hundreds of times now.. what annoys here at the moment are the speedy thoughtless cyclists that tear through the tunnel.. A real shame the lift guys have gone (but at least they got rid of those stupid chicane gates in the middle, that caused everyone to bunch up and wait while all the bikes went through)
Excellent post once again. Thanks for the wonderful drawings of the stairs and glass roof.. very nice.
JB
Thanks Mr Blogs.
Thanks for another fascinating piece, Micky. Does the tunnel really move with the tides? (Your article is dated 1 April, after all…) Until quite recently there was a nicely alliterative notice in the tunnel: ‘No Cycling, Fouling of Animals, Skateboarding, Skating, Littering, Loitering or Spitting’.
It apparently really does bend with the tide. A scary, but exciting idea.
I know the sign you mean – I took a photo of it not so long ago. I was wondering how one would foul an animal.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/islandhistory/14876691500/in/set-72157646551551908
Interesting stuff MIcky. Thanks for posting.
Reblogged this on timpenrice.
I never knew about the tunnel until we explored the Isle of Dogs on foot. It is a fascinating place. The domes are spectacular. (I am glad I didn’t know about it changing shape though!) I love that first photo and in my youth, I worked for “Izal” who made your toilet paper!
🙂
Does anybody know anything about Osborne House? I’m desperate to know what it was
Have a look here, George: https://islandhistory.wordpress.com/2013/12/14/island-gardens/
And here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/islandhistory/sets/72157646576714379/
One of my happiest childhood memories is every summer holiday going out with mum and dad and my sisters and we would all run through this tunnel. Dad would teach us how it was built and the history and me and my sisters used to love spooking each other saying the wet patches on the floor where where the tunnel was caving in! Haha Then we’d be met by the lift man. It felt safe and an adventure. Shall we go through the tunnel today dad would say and we all scream yeah!! This was the 1970s the world seemed safe because my dad was there. I doubt very much I’d walk that tunnel now unless I was in a crowd. Happy memories 🙂
My surname is above the tunnel distant uncle W Copperthwaite feel proud about this fact Tina Copperthwaite
🙂
Micky – this is a great piece and it would be good to hear more. You probably know there is now a Friends Group (FOGWOFT – Friends of Greenwich and Woolwich Foot Tunnels http://fogwoft.com/) . I don’t know if you are aware of all the work which has been done on the tunnel, and some of the things happening with the lifts. People from the Island have been at our meetings – were you one of them? – and we have had events in Island Gardens. We also have people from Greenwich and Newham involved. Maybe you are already in touch – at the least it would be good to put a link through on the web site to your interesting posting.
Thanks Mary, I hadn’t heard of the group, but I’ll go take a look now. Thanks
There’s also this: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp518-528#h3-0015
My Mother and her sisters and brother lived on the isle of dogs before they got married, we used the tunnel every week-end to visit my grand mother, my cousin and I used to run through the tunnel screaming just to hear our voices echoing in the tunnel, and being told off by our parents and the lift attendant.
I used the tunnel twice a day for school too & had many friends over Greenwich so often went there in the holidays & evenings. I went to Greenwich Swimming baths & Saturday morning pictures.
My brother served his apprenticeship as a carpenter at Stuart’s Grenolithic so was interested that the stonework on the tunnel entrance came from there.
My granddad lived in Manchester Rd and his wife-to-be over in New Cross. They were courting at the time when The Blitz started. As a kid back in the 70’s I remember him telling me how they shut the Tunnel on the first night of the Blitz and he and Nan were carried over to the Island on boats to get home. Hobson’s choice I guess!
How can the tunnel bend with the tide when its buried beneath the water? And wouldn’t the tiles lift and fall off if it was actually ‘moving’.
I think we’re talking millimetres, Dave, if that; and it has more to do with the weight of the water above the mud (which itself is large parts water). After all, even tall buildings are desgined to bend a little in the wind.
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Hi Mick, I have just been reading about the Greenwich Tunnel, totally fascinating I am always reading your articles as my grandfather was born and lived on the Island. until his death in 1922.
Thanks Alison, and I am glad you’re enjoying the articles.
Hello, I lived in Greenwich and my (then) future husband lived on the Isle of Dogs. We went through the tunnel at least twice a day, every day in the 1960s. Between 1963 and 1967 my fiancé discovered the body of the lift man on the Isle of Dogs side. He had committed suicide by throwing himself down the lift shaft. I have never seen this mentioned in anything written about the tunnel. If I remember correctly his name was Albert. In those days the lifts closed at 10:30, my the fiancé was climbing the stairs and saw his lying on top of the lift, he ran to the Police station that used to be in Manchester Road.
Interesting (and sad), Helen. Thanks. Hadn’t heard that before either. I’m going to ask around – see if any Islanders know the story….
It would be interesting to know more – I cannot remember the exact date but it would be within the range I put in my message. My then boyfriends name was George Budden and I believe he had to attend the inquest.
Viia via I received some more details: “The man in question was a Docker, but after his severance pay from the docks , he got a job on the lift at the foot tunnel. And then unfortunately did this to himself, Allegedly by sending lift down. Walking up the stairs and opening the metal gates with his keys and then jumping off. Very sad.”