 The Rotherhithe entrance of the Rotherhithe Tunnel, 1909
 The same entrance (as at February 2006) The Rotherhithe Tunnel is a road tunnel crossing beneath the River Thames in East London. It connects the Ratcliff district of Limehouse in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets north of the river to Rotherhithe in the London Borough of Southwark south of the river. It is designated as the A101. It was formally opened in 1908 by George Prince of Wales (later King George V), and Richard Robinson, Chairman of the London County Council. Rotherhithe Tunnel (Rotherhithe entrance), 1909 This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...
Rotherhithe Tunnel (Rotherhithe entrance), 1909 This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ...
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This article is about the River Thames in southern England. ...
This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...
, Limehouse Town Hall Limehouse is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. ...
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough to the east of the City of London and north of the River Thames in East London. ...
, Rotherhithe is a district of south-east London in the London Borough of Southwark. ...
The London Borough of Southwark is a London borough in London, England. ...
1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ...
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was the first British monarch belonging to the House of Windsor, which he created from the British branch of the German House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. ...
This article is about the title Prince of Wales. ...
Sir Richard Atkinson Robinson DL (October 16, 1849–April 28, 1928) was a chemist and pharmacist, who later became a local politician and was the first Conservative to lead the London County Council (1907-1908). ...
London County Council emblem is still seen today on buildings, especially housing, from that era London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London from 1889 until 1965, when it was replaced by the Greater London Council. ...
It should not be confused with the nearby but earlier and much more historic Thames Tunnel, designed and built under the supervision of Marc Isambard Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel, which is now used by the East London Line of the London Underground. Interior of the Thames Tunnel, mid-19th century The Thames Tunnel was the worlds first underwater tunnel, built beneath the River Thames in London. ...
Marc Isambard Brunel, engraving by G. Metzeroth, circa 1880 Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, FRS (April 25, 1769 – December 12, 1849) was a French-born engineer who settled in the United Kingdom. ...
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) (IPA: ), was a British engineer. ...
London Transport Portal The East London Line is a line of the London Underground, coloured orange on the Tube map. ...
The London Underground is an underground railway system - also known as a rapid transit system - that serves a large part of Greater London, United Kingdom and some neighbouring areas. ...
Construction
Designed by Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice, the Engineer to the London County Council, the tunnel's construction was authorised by the Thames Tunnel (Rotherhithe and Ratcliff) Act of 1900 despite considerable opposition from local residents, nearly 3,000 of whom were displaced by the tunnel works.[1] London County Council emblem is still seen today on buildings, especially housing, from that era London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London from 1889 until 1965, when it was replaced by the Greater London Council. ...
Äž: For the film, see: 1900 (film). ...
The work took place between 1904 and 1908, executed by the resident engineer Edward H. Tabor and the contractors Price and Reeves at a cost of about £1 million. The tunnel was excavated partly using a tunnelling shield and partly through cut-and-cover methods. The entrance arches of the tunnel are in fact the cutting edges of the original tunnelling shield, which measured 30 feet 8 inches (9.35 m) in diameter,[2] forming in effect a loading gauge for the tunnel. 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ...
1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ...
A tunnelling shield is a protective structure used in the excavation of tunnels through soil that is too soft or fluid to remain stable during the time it takes to line the tunnel with a support structure of concrete or steel. ...
An underground pedestrian tunnel between buildings at MIT. Note the utility pipes running along the ceiling. ...
A loading gauge is the envelope or contoured shape within which all railway vehicles, engines, coaches, and trucks must fit. ...
Physical characteristics
The narrow interior of the Rotherhithe Tunnel
 Sectional map of the Rotherhithe Tunnel, 1906 The Rotherhithe Tunnel consists of a single bore, 4,860 feet (1,481 m) long, carrying a two-lane carriageway 48 feet (14.5 m) below the high-water level of the Thames, with a maximum depth of 75 feet (23 m) below the surface. Four shafts were sunk alongside the tunnel to aid construction and to serve later as ventilation and entrance shafts. The two riverside shafts, built in red brick with stone dressings, were fitted with iron spiral staircases to serve as pedestrian entrances. They are now closed to the public (the roofs were damaged during WWII, and the iron staircases became dangerous), and currently the only entrance to the tunnel is via the main portals at each end (the bases of the staircases can still be seen as you pass through the tunnel). Pedestrian (and cycle) access is still permitted in the Rotherhithe bore, however, the distances involved for pedestrians increased significantly when the spiral staircases closed because rather than just crossing the river, a pedestrian has to follow the carriageway ramp all the way back to the surface. However, the shafts have recently had new roofs fitted, and there are rumoured plans to reopen the spiral staircases. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (600 × 800 pixel, file size: 103 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ...
Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (600 × 800 pixel, file size: 103 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ...
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Spiral stairway in the Vatican Museum Stairs, staircase, stairway, and flight of stairs are all names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps. ...
The tunnel is entered via a sloping brick-lined open-air cutting at each end, leading to the entrance portals, followed by a short cut-and-cover section of tunnel until the first of the tunnel's four shafts are reached. The tunneled section is situated between shafts 1 and 4, measures 3,689 feet (1,125 m) long and is lined with cast iron segments.[3] At the time of its construction, the tunnel was said to be "the largest subaqueous tunnel in existence".[4] Cast iron usually refers to grey cast iron, but can mean any of a group of iron-based alloys containing more than 2% carbon (alloys with less carbon are carbon steel by definition). ...
The Rotherhithe Tunnel was originally designed to serve foot and horse-drawn traffic passing between the docks on either side of the river. This accounts for some of its more unusual design features. The roadways are narrow, with each lane only some 8 feet (2.4 m) wide, and two footways of between 4 and 6 feet (1.2 to 2 m) wide on each side. The tunnel is shallow, with a maximum gradient of 1 in 36, to cater for non-mechanised traffic. Its route includes sharp, nearly right-angled bends at the points where the tunnel goes under the river bed. These served two purposes: avoiding the local docks on each side of the river, and preventing horses from seeing daylight at the end of the tunnel too early which might make them bolt for the exit. The Millennium Dome and Canary Wharf from the Royal Victoria Dock. ...
This has unfortunately made it difficult for motorised vehicles to traverse the tunnel safely. Large vehicles cannot easily pass the sharp bends and are therefore banned from entering the tunnel. The speed limit of 20 miles per hour is enforced with speed cameras but is frequently exceeded. A 2003 survey rated the Rotherhithe Tunnel the tenth most dangerous tunnel in the whole of Europe due to its poor safety features.[5] Its proximity to the river also made it vulnerable to flooding, as happened in the 1928 Thames flood.[6]. A road speed limit is the maximum speed allowed by law for road vehicles. ...
A red-light camera in use in Beaverton, Oregon A road-rule enforcement camera is a system including a camera and a vehicle-monitoring device used to detect and identify vehicles disobeying a road rule or road rules. ...
Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The 1928 Thames flood was a disastrous flood of the River Thames that affected much of riverside London, England, on 7 January 1928, as well as places further downriver. ...
Usage Like London's other tunnels and bridges, the Rotherhithe Tunnel now carries far more traffic than it was designed for. It was well-used from the start, with 2,600 vehicles a day using it soon after it opened - a figure which was seen as easily justifying the expense of its construction. By 1955, usage had quadrupled to 10,500 vehicles a day[1] and by 2005 usage had tripled again, to over 34,000 vehicles a day.[7] The tunnel's heavy usage, particularly during rush hours, can lead to significant congestion and tailbacks in the vicinity.
Cyclists may use the tunnel, although it is not the safest option for crossing the River Thames due to the fumes and heavy traffic. Alternatives include Tower Bridge to the west or the Greenwich foot tunnel to the east. Cyclists may also take their bike on the whole of the East London Line outside of peak hours (07:30 to 09:30 and 16:00 to 19:00 Monday to Friday) [1]. Rotherhithe station is almost adjacent to the southern tunnel entrance, whilst Wapping is the closest station on the north side to the tunnel entrance in Limehouse. Pedestrians may also use the tunnel, although only approximately 20 do so per day.[7] For the bridge of the same name in California, see Tower Bridge (California). ...
Greenwich side entrance, with a similar Tower Hamlets side entrance visible in the distance to the right The Greenwich foot tunnel is a pedestrian tunnel crossing beneath the River Thames in east London, linking the London Borough of Greenwich to the south with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to...
London Transport Portal The East London Line is a line of the London Underground, coloured orange on the Tube map. ...
Rotherhithe is a London Underground station in Rotherhithe. ...
Wapping is a London Underground station near Wapping in east London, England. ...
See also This is a list of crossings of the River Thames, downstream first, including bridges, tunnels and ferries. ...
Tunnels in the United Kingdom is a link page for any road, railway, waterway or other form of tunnel, anywhere in the United Kingdom. ...
There are many tunnels under the River Thames in and near London, which, thanks largely to its underlying bed of clay, is one of the most tunnelled cities in the world. ...
References - ^ a b "Rotherhithe Tunnel Jubilee", P.L.A. Monthly, Port of London 1955
- ^ Rolt Hammond, Civil Engineering Plant and Methods, p. 150. (Benn, 1952)
- ^ Denis Smith, London and the Thames Valley, p. 17. (Thomas Telford, 2000)
- ^ Henry Jephson, The Making of Modern London: progress & reaction: twenty-one years of the London County council, p. 62. (The London Liberal Federation, 1910)
- ^ "UK's 'dangerous' road tunnels", BBC News Online, 24 April 2003
- ^ "The South Side. Damage In Tooleystreet Area." The Times, 9 January 1928
- ^ a b "Rotherhithe Tunnel to close on Tuesday nights", Transport for London, 5 May 2005
Coordinates: 51°30′18″N 0°02′49″W / 51.505, -0.047 Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...
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