Tunnels underneath the River Thames


The table below lists many of the 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. The tunnels are used for road vehicles, pedestrians, Tube and railway lines and utilities. Several tunnels are over a century old: the original Thames Tunnel was the world's first underwater tunnel.
East to west NameTypeBetween...Construction yearComments
1Thames Cable TunnelUtilitiesFormer Tilbury power station↔Eastcourt Marsh sealing end compound19701,675 metres long, carries two 400kV circuits; depth 46 metres, only accessible by authorized personnel
2High Speed 1Twin Rail TunnelsSwanscombe, Kent↔West Thurrock, Essex2007
3Dartford TunnelTwin Road Tunnels1963West Tunnel - 1963, East Tunnel - 1980
4Dartford Cable TunnelUtilities2004
5Barking Cable TunnelUtilitiesBarking↔Thamesmead
6Docklands Light Railway TunnelsRailWoolwich Arsenal↔King George V2009
7Crossrail TunnelsRailWoolwich ↔ North Woolwich2015The tunnel construction was finished in 2015, they are due to begin rail service in 2020/21
8Woolwich foot tunnelFootWoolwich↔North Woolwich1912Maurice Fitzmaurice
9Thames BarrierServiceWoolwich ↔ North Woolwich1984Service tunnel only accessible by authorized personnel
10Millennium Dome electricity cable tunnelUtilitiesNorth Greenwich ↔ West Ham19992.8 metre diameter, only accessible by authorized personnel
11London Underground Jubilee line TunnelsRailNorth Greenwich↔Canning Town1999
12Blackwall TunnelsRoadNorth Greenwich↔Blackwall1897Second bore in 1967. Alexander Binnie
13London Underground Jubilee line TunnelsRailCanary Wharf↔North Greenwich1999
14Docklands Light Railway TunnelsRailIsland Gardens↔Cutty Sark1999
15Greenwich Foot TunnelFootMillwall↔Greenwich1902Alexander Binnie
16Deptford River TunnelUtilitiesDeptford↔Wapping
17London Underground Jubilee line TunnelsRailCanada Water↔Canary Wharf1999
18Rotherhithe TunnelRoad, cycle, footRotherhithe↔Limehouse1908Maurice Fitzmaurice
19Thames TunnelRailWapping↔Rotherhithe1843Marc Brunel. The world's first underwater tunnel, now part of the Overground network. Originally a foot tunnel.
20New Cross to Finsbury Market Cable TunnelUtilitiesNew Cross Substation - Wellclose Square Substation2017
21Tower SubwayUtilities1870Peter W. Barlow and James Henry Greathead. The world's first underground tube railway. A rail tunnel for 3 months only, then a foot tunnel. Currently carries pipes and fibre-optic lines.
22London Underground Northern line Tunnels RailLondon Bridge station↔Bank1900
23City and South London Railway TunnelsDisusedBorough↔King William Street1890Originally rail tunnels, now disused. The world's first electric tube railway, with tunnels only in diameter, became disused in 1900 when new tunnels to the east replaced them
24London Underground Waterloo & City line TunnelsRail1898
25Bankside River TunnelUtilitiesBankside↔Blackfriars
26London Underground Northern line Tunnels Rail1926
27London Underground Bakerloo line TunnelsRail1906
28Bankside–Charing CrossUtilitiesBankside substation to Charing Cross substation, partly runs beneath Hungerford Bridge
29London Underground Jubilee line TunnelsRailWestminster↔Waterloo1999
30London Underground Victoria line TunnelsRail1971
31Wimbledon - Pimlico Cable TunnelUtility1996
32Battersea Power Station TunnelsUtility1929 2 tunnels run under the Thames from the station and arrive on either side of Chelsea Bridge. A third tunnel used to carry steam under the Thames to the Churchill Gardens estate.
33London Power TunnelsUtilityWimbledon - Kensal Green2011

Other tunnels

The figure and list above leaves out a tunnel to the site of the old Ferranti power station on the east side of the mouth of Deptford Creek.
There is also a tunnel between Cottons centre and the old Billingsgate Fish Market near to London Bridge. Citibank used it for cabling at one point; it was large enough for a person to walk through.
The Silvertown Tunnel is a new Thames river crossing proposed to supplement the existing Blackwall Tunnel, which will join the Greenwich Peninsula with West Silvertown.

Background

London's abundance of river tunnels has resulted from a number of factors. For historical reasons, the city centre has relatively few railway bridges. Only three railway bridges exist in central London, only one of which provides through services across the capital. Consequently, railway builders have had to tunnel under the river in the city centre rather than bridge it. By contrast, railway bridges are relatively common to the west of the inner city.
Another historical factor has been the presence of the Port of London, which until the 1980s required large ships to be able to access the river as far upstream as the City of London. Until the construction of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge in 1991, the easternmost bridge on the Thames was Tower Bridge in central London. Even now, the Dartford Crossing provides the only way to cross the Thames by road between London and the sea. The width of the river downstream meant that tunnels were the only options for crossings before improvements in technology allowed the construction of high bridges such as the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford.