
Land Registry data reveals London’s secret tunnels - joosters
https://whoownsengland.org/2017/12/15/how-land-registry-data-reveals-londons-secret-tunnels/
======
llsf
In Paris, there are the same post-WW2 shelters. I worked in one of them owned
at the time by the France Telecom. I liked it as I felt like a spy :) You
entered from the street thru a small door. Then in the hall there was a guy
behind a glass, asking for ID. Once verified, you could turn to the elevator.
There was nothing else in this entry hall, a glass window and an elevator
door. The elevator was going 7 level deep (could go to 9 if I recall, but I
did not have access to lower level). -7 was weird. They had fake windows with
artificial light behind. Walls with huge landscape picture. It was warm too.
And kinda dead, as I was sometime the only one working at that floor, and I
could not venture much as there were cameras everywhere. It was actually cool
still :)

------
stuart78
This whole blog is interesting, glad to have been introduced to it. As an
American, I love being reminded how young everything about us is. See, for
example, the entry about the Duchy of Cornwall [0]:

"The Duchy was created in 1337 by Edward III, as a personal endowment for his
son, the Black Prince. Ever since, its lands and revenues have belonged to the
male heir to the throne – in recent times, Charles, Prince of Wales."

I acknowledge (and sympathize with) the author's interest in greater
transparency, but I also have an appreciation for institutions that survive in
this way, anachronistic and antiquated though it may be.

[https://whoownsengland.org/2017/03/15/what-land-does-the-
duc...](https://whoownsengland.org/2017/03/15/what-land-does-the-duchy-of-
cornwall-own/)

~~~
rtx
They survive through violence.

~~~
dhruvrrp
Was there an alternative that didn't require violence?

------
dbatten
People (myself included) seem to have an inordinate fascination with tunnels.
I mean, there's a fascination with things that are dilapidated/old, and a
fascination with places you're not allowed to go. But tunnels in particular
take it to an even higher level.

I wonder what it is about us that makes that the case?

~~~
PoachedSausage
They are amazing feats of civil engineering. I visited London recently and was
riding on the Tube, most of the deep parts you cannot really see, but there
are lines that are in cuttings and there the low-level foundation, plumbing
and wiring of the city can be glimpsed.

I sometimes wish I had become a civil engineer rather than electronic.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
London's sewers are more impressive than the Tube system. Much of the tube was
built with relatively modern tunnelling technology - especially the newer
lines like the Victoria and Jubilee Extension.

The sewers were hand-built with late Victorian technology - i.e. brick-lined
deep tunnelling - and made a huge contribution to public health. The Thames
was literally full of crap until they were completed, and they made London
approximately habitable, instead of the disease-infested hell hole it used to
be.

~~~
PoachedSausage
Indeed, the sewers are a marvel of Victorian civil engineering, however it is
difficult to explore them without wading through Fatbergs[0]. The closest you
can probably find is the South Kensington Subway[1] which links the Science
Museum to South Kensington Tube station and the Woolwich and Greenwich foot
tunnels[2].

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatberg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatberg)
[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertopolis#Overview](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertopolis#Overview)
[2][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolwich_foot_tunnel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolwich_foot_tunnel)

------
stuart78
Also on this topic, remembered this post from a year ago collecting cutaway
illustrations of the London Underground:
[http://londonist.com/london/transport/london-
cutaways](http://londonist.com/london/transport/london-cutaways)

------
contingencies
Interesting that there are tunnels around Hatton Garden which is a large
center of the jewellery trade. No doubt some great heist plot material there!

~~~
robin_reala
Presumably you’re aware of the tunnelling in
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatton_Garden_safe_deposit_bur...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatton_Garden_safe_deposit_burglary)

------
vijayr
This blog is awesome. Some of the entries are eye opening and scary - like
this one [https://whoownsengland.org/2017/04/17/the-thirty-
landowners-...](https://whoownsengland.org/2017/04/17/the-thirty-landowners-
who-own-half-a-county/)

Is there anything like this for the U.S?

It is crazy to see such huge amounts of land owned by a few
individuals/companies.

------
sandworm101
Given the size of these tunnels, and London's extreme land values, we have to
assume they are being used by someone. The government wouldn't let all that
space go to waste. So that means there is a largeish population (100s?) of
people commuting into london each morning only to disappear into these
tunnels. Identifying and tracking these people would be a great open source
intel project.

~~~
discodave
> government wouldn't let all that space go to waste

Assumptions make an ass out of you and me. That wouldn't even be the biggest
waste of resources I heard about this week.

Having said that, it's certainly possible/feasible that the tunnels are being
used. The case against would be that these tunnels are in very sensitive
areas, and so the security restrictions on any potential use would be very
strict.

