please empty your brain below
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I always thought it was one of Brunel's first projects but I suppose it was too late for Isambard to have been involved.
Murphy | Homepage | 10.10.06 - 8:09 a.m. | #
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That purply pink rubbish bin looks so incongruous, like a mini Tardis that's suddenly materialized.
Fatima | 10.10.06 - 8:59 a.m. | #
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It reads totally differently en blog page to how it read in print.
Blue Witch | Homepage | 10.10.06 - 10:23 a.m. | #
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I used to use the foot tunnel a fair bit, when I was working on a ship moored down near the Arsenal.
To be honest, while it's quite a spooky place at times, your odds of being mugged are, I think, fairly slim. This is because so few people use the tunnel that it's hardly worth a mugger's time to lurk there.
Tom M | Homepage | 10.10.06 - 10:25 a.m. | #
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DG, if you fancy joining forces for some Urban Exploration, then I am game. Judging by your piece here, you would be excellent at it!
Laura-Ann | Homepage | 10.10.06 - 10:37 a.m. | #
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Men of Kent come from East of the Medway, whereas those from West of it are known as Kentish Men.
I know some useless crap and am pedantic. I think those are my most appealing character attributes.
ian | Homepage | 10.10.06 - 10:38 a.m. | #
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One good thing about the tunnel is that when you get to the other side (nobody actualy lives south, do they?) you can turn left and cycle off road to Dartford on the Thames Path except for a bit of road at Ear-iff, I did it last week, some of the views are like this. It's an excellent family ride (ie, flat and long enough to make you think you've seserved a pint by the end)
Ham | Homepage | 10.10.06 - 10:54 a.m. | #
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..seconding what Witchy said... it reads completely differently on blog than on paper. How bizarre!
Congratulations on the second piece for Time Out.
NiC | Homepage | 10.10.06 - 12:13 p.m. | #
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Did DG's article seem more authoritative on paper?
Great Aunt Annie | 10.10.06 - 12:21 p.m. | #
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I went through it back on one of the hottest days of the summer - it was beautifully cool down there.
Carrying my bike up all the steps at the Greenwich end because the lift was out of order was less appealing.
Cal | Homepage | 10.10.06 - 12:42 p.m. | #
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Maybe a follow up on the Greenwich and Rotherhithe Tunnels (the later complete with its sharp bends and disused pedestrian spiral staircase shafts at each end? When I first used the Woolwich Tunnel, the attendants (always old boys) were dressed like park keepers, or Derek Guyler's "Potter" caretaker character in "Please Sir", complete with peaked caps bearing the GLC shield!
Kim | 10.10.06 - 1:16 p.m. | #
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Ian: I was pleased to read your comment. I immediately honed in on "men of Kent". I remember it featured in a question in an old quiz book but try as I might I could not find any reference to this on the web.
Pedantic of Purley | 10.10.06 - 1:49 p.m. | #
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Its amazing they still pay lift operators, especially if so few people use the tunnel.
Kevinho | 10.10.06 - 2:16 p.m. | #
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Isn't Woolwich in the LB of Greenwich? In which case that Newham-pink bin is very lost.
dg writes: Yes, Woolwich is in Greenwich.
But North Woolwich is in Newham.
Rosamundi | Homepage | 10.10.06 - 2:23 p.m. | #
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A friend and I used to regularly use the tunnel during the 70s when, as teenagers, we invariably missed the last ferry. It was a scary place then but you wouldn't catch me dead down there now. It's just too damned spooky! At least back then we often had a couple of squadies to accompany us through 
Sharon J | Homepage | 10.10.06 - 3:17 p.m. | #
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Great Aunt Annie... to me, it just didn't seem to read like DG when on paper.. 'twas very strange.
NiC | Homepage | 10.10.06 - 4:52 p.m. | #
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Thanks, NiC. I think I was trying to pin down the unpinnable-downable.
Great Aunt Annie | 10.10.06 - 8:47 p.m. | #
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Went down there for the first time last summer at the start of a 2 day Thames walk all the way to Hampton Court. It's a great way to start, a place of mystery, forbodeing and dodgy lift attendants. Read your piece on the Wandle in todays TO, DG. Interesting, it made me want to do the walk - have you ever walked the Tyburn? - you never actually see the water but it's a fine walk.
Johnny Topaz | 10.10.06 - 9:04 p.m. | #
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The Woolwich Foot Tunnel has tremendous acoustics - if you catch a decent busker down there, it'll carry all the way to either end. And yes, not only is the southern bore almost impossible to find, but the through bus (101) you used to get at the north is now cut off. The only really feasible way out is the longer-than-it-looks path to King George V DLR, which is brute block architecture accessed only through a gauntlet of nasties.
Matt | 10.10.06 - 10:00 p.m. | #
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Pedantic of Purley: Men of Kent / Kentish men.
ian | Homepage | 11.10.06 - 12:41 a.m. | #
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Of course North Woolwich *was* in the Borough of Woolwich and part of Kent until 1965 due to a historical precedent dating back to middle ages.
Kim | 11.10.06 - 1:05 a.m. | #
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As kids when the ferries were paddle wheelers we'd cross on the ferry, land and run back through the tunnel to beat the ferry back. In them days when bread was three farthings a bottle, there was only one lift man and he used to alternate between the north and south lifts. Tunnel did good war work though, I wonder what?
will e licka? | 11.10.06 - 6:11 p.m. | #
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The four ferries were coal fired paddle boats owned by the LCC and made in Cowes IOW. They were all named after LCC councillors, I can only think of Ben Lyon now. The officers, employed by the LCC, had passenger ships qualifications and the crew were all 'high seas' retired men.
You could see the engine room from the lower deck (no windows), watch the telegraphs from the bridge and hear the bells with orders to the 'engineers', levers pulled and pushed, valve wheels turned, huge crankshafts stopped and reversed, a grand sight indeed.
Every two trips a Charringtons coal lorry would come aboard and dump three tons of coke down the feed chute to the boiler room.
Oh them were the feckin 'days!
Boring for you but, then again!
will e licka? | 11.10.06 - 6:35 p.m. | #
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I visited the tunnel for the first time recently. At 9 o'clock on a Saturday morning, the only occupants of the tunnel (apart from me) were joggers.
Mark | Homepage | 12.10.06 - 10:43 p.m. | #
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As Sharon J said, she and I used that tunnel a lot in the 70's when we missed the last ferry. I used to run through it when I was on my own in case it collapsed!! I really hated the bit slap bang in the middle when you couldn't see either end. At least then, we knew the lift attendants would be there. Glory days, they had one at each end!!!
carol | 18.10.06 - 6:23 p.m. | #
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I live southside of the tunnel (about 10 mins walk from the entrance or 30 mins walk away for my 1st time of using given I couldn't find where you get in and got lost). I'm thinking of doing a sponsored walk one day. Up and down the tunnel until I collapse with boredom unless we could also combine it with a sponsored busker's convention. can you imagine the acoustics?
tRISH | 26.11.06 - 4:12 p.m. | #
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