Underground Greenwich (2) Tunnels in Greenwich Park
Since commencing myown personal Great Greenwich Read-A-Thon, I have realised A Universal Truth. No - nothing about single men in posession of fortunes or anything like that, no.
Merely that a story set in Greenwich or Blackheath must be in want of a good underground tunnel. I got no further than page 19 of The Worm of Death (sitll loving that title) before they started mentioning the tunnels in Greenwich Park, and virtually all the other books set in the area are based around the fantasy of a troglodytic world.
On Bentos's suggestion, I thought I'd do a bit of sniffing about these caverns and tunnels, but am sure I'm only scraping the surface here. Anyone who wants to add a freaky fact or spooky story of their own, please feel free to do so...
My first link is to
www.kurg.org.uk/sites/secret.htm
which is all about underground tunnels, and they describe the ones under Greenwich Park as conduits rather than secret passages. They are very much man-made, brick-lined and with rather splendid arched roofs. They're about 5ft high and half as wide, so not imposible to walk along if you stooped a bit, assuming you were actually allowed anywhere near them. They're very closely guarded by Royal Parks. Various people have claimed to have spent some time as small children looking for the entrances, but no one I've ever met has ever actually been in one. Do let me know if you actually managed it. Some of them are as long as a quarter of a mile. The site reckons that there are little gaps in the bottom three courses leading to lead troughs in the floor, with occasional manholes.
I have no idea exactly where they run - they apparently have lots of branches, but I can't find a map of them (do let me know if you know of one.) They were meant as a means of collecting water for the Royal Palace, presumably the more recent one rather than Placentia, though a somewhat obscure English Heritage feature seems to imply they are medieval. I do know that if you stand in the bottom part of the park looking back in the direction of the river you'll spot, in a private garden, one of the oldest buildings in Greenwich, and, if memory serves, one of the few remaining parts of Placentia. It's a square, red-roofed building, in a garden to the right of the Queens House as you look from the park, and I remember being told that it once housed the royal water supply - which was well-guarded to prevent poisoning. Perhaps it's connected to the park conduits.
There's a conduit head from about 1710 on the corner of West Grove and Hyde Vale - it is quite large, brick-built and has a rounded top. It also has a plaque on it which I must read one day. There's also a largeish brick building in the west part of the park which I have always assumed was something to do with the water suply - maybe one of the Friends could enlighten me?
Another hole in the park is also mentioned by this site, a 100ft well built in 1670 at the Royal Observatory by John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal. He would go down the spiral steps and point his extra-long telescope towards the heavens. The Kurg site says you can see it at the Observatory, but I confess I don't remember it.
Of course the biggest tunnel underneath Greenwich Park is the railway link from London Bridge out towards Dartford. It was going to be above ground but the good burghers of Greenwich opposed it violently during the 1830s and it was instead built underground in 1878.
Here's a link to a great pic of the conduit under the park: (you might need to reformat it so it works)
http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/reference.asp?index=2497&main_query=&theme=&period=&county=&district=&place_name=London&imageUID=76063
I'll cover the Blackheath tunnels, caverns and other heath-type holes another day...
Merely that a story set in Greenwich or Blackheath must be in want of a good underground tunnel. I got no further than page 19 of The Worm of Death (sitll loving that title) before they started mentioning the tunnels in Greenwich Park, and virtually all the other books set in the area are based around the fantasy of a troglodytic world.
On Bentos's suggestion, I thought I'd do a bit of sniffing about these caverns and tunnels, but am sure I'm only scraping the surface here. Anyone who wants to add a freaky fact or spooky story of their own, please feel free to do so...
My first link is to
www.kurg.org.uk/sites/secret.htm
which is all about underground tunnels, and they describe the ones under Greenwich Park as conduits rather than secret passages. They are very much man-made, brick-lined and with rather splendid arched roofs. They're about 5ft high and half as wide, so not imposible to walk along if you stooped a bit, assuming you were actually allowed anywhere near them. They're very closely guarded by Royal Parks. Various people have claimed to have spent some time as small children looking for the entrances, but no one I've ever met has ever actually been in one. Do let me know if you actually managed it. Some of them are as long as a quarter of a mile. The site reckons that there are little gaps in the bottom three courses leading to lead troughs in the floor, with occasional manholes.
I have no idea exactly where they run - they apparently have lots of branches, but I can't find a map of them (do let me know if you know of one.) They were meant as a means of collecting water for the Royal Palace, presumably the more recent one rather than Placentia, though a somewhat obscure English Heritage feature seems to imply they are medieval. I do know that if you stand in the bottom part of the park looking back in the direction of the river you'll spot, in a private garden, one of the oldest buildings in Greenwich, and, if memory serves, one of the few remaining parts of Placentia. It's a square, red-roofed building, in a garden to the right of the Queens House as you look from the park, and I remember being told that it once housed the royal water supply - which was well-guarded to prevent poisoning. Perhaps it's connected to the park conduits.
There's a conduit head from about 1710 on the corner of West Grove and Hyde Vale - it is quite large, brick-built and has a rounded top. It also has a plaque on it which I must read one day. There's also a largeish brick building in the west part of the park which I have always assumed was something to do with the water suply - maybe one of the Friends could enlighten me?
Another hole in the park is also mentioned by this site, a 100ft well built in 1670 at the Royal Observatory by John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal. He would go down the spiral steps and point his extra-long telescope towards the heavens. The Kurg site says you can see it at the Observatory, but I confess I don't remember it.
Of course the biggest tunnel underneath Greenwich Park is the railway link from London Bridge out towards Dartford. It was going to be above ground but the good burghers of Greenwich opposed it violently during the 1830s and it was instead built underground in 1878.
Here's a link to a great pic of the conduit under the park: (you might need to reformat it so it works)
http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/reference.asp?index=2497&main_query=&theme=&period=&county=&district=&place_name=London&imageUID=76063
I'll cover the Blackheath tunnels, caverns and other heath-type holes another day...
Labels: Mostly-Accurate History, Places of Interest, Underground Greenwich
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
07:52
8 Comments:
A friend of mine used to own a house on Park Row called the Chantry (near the park gates). She told me that there was a tunnel (since filled in) from under her kitchen which used to go directly into the palace, not sure if it would have been Placentia or the Royal Palace. The house certainly dated back to Henry VIII.
Regarding your search for books on Greenwich, there is a small tome by Malcom Godfrey on the Ghosts of Greenwich, he is ex-navy and was based at the Naval College. Lots of lovely little stories about ghostly encounters in and around the College. I have a copy somewhere, but where?....
Oooh - interesting - I wonder if it was a water supply for the Chantry?
I've seen the Ghosts of Greenwich book but don't have a copy yet. So many books so little time...
I dont think it was a water supply, she seemed to think that the tunnel was to get from the house to the palace,possibly in secret?
Well - it's possible. I have no idea. Maybe someone out there knows. But these conduits look just like secret passages - they're 5ft high, two and a half feet wide and with brick arches. Who can tell. I know which I'd rather have - secret passages every time, eh...
What a shame it's blocked up. Some people have no sense of romance.
Just in case you never got around to reading the plaque, I've taken some photos this evening which are on my flickr stream, link above.
It's a nice oddity to chance across.
hi just found your site as have known about the tunnel complex for some years, and am writing a book, consequently further investigating, the tunnel system, on the coast, however. I know about them as I owned 7 Crooms Hill in the early 1990's, and my nextdoor neighbour was a famous historian who published many books on the subject. she gave me a signed copy - i'm v lucky as she's passed on now. anyway, the tunnels were smuggling tunnels/ prostitute tunnels in the early days, later to create the very first running water system in the UK for the Palace. The tunels were opened for the Victorians to visit as a day out, but became so badly damaged they had to be closed. The past time then was 'tumbling' whereby the working classes would go to the Park and roll down the hill. There is a vast function room which can still be hired for events thro the Parks people, and indeed was hired as a venue on the Millenium eve. hope that helps. PS. In 1975 when the theatre on crooms hill shut for the evening following a performance, they audience exited to discover a car parked outside has disappeared almost 10 feet into the road - this is when the tunnels were first 'rediscovered' following victorian times. cheers.
Anon - I'm deeply intrigued - I have not come across any of this at all - in fact much of the stuff I've read seems to be quite opposite to this. I've done a lot of research in this area (see all the 'underground Greenwich' pieces) and these seem to be different in many respects.
I'd love to get hold of a copy of this book by your neighbour. What's it called and who's it by? I'm itching to track it down, even if it means a trip to the British Library...
I am a student carrying out a desk study of Hyde Vale and found on a 1916 orndance survey map at the heritage centre hyde vale underground passage. The map shows this dotted line from Conduit House in the park to Hyde vale.
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