Talk:Tower Subway

Tower Bridge 'almost directly above'?
Tower Bridge is actually about 400m downstream (East) of the Subway. Is this really "directly above"? It's nearly half the distance between Tower Bridge and London Bridge.


 * You're absolutely right. I've changed this. -- ChrisO 21:54, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

How can the Tower Subway be the oldest underground railway line, when the London Underground began operations in 1863?


 * The key word is "tube". Earlier London underground lines were constructed using cut-and-cover methods, not tunnelling shields, etc. Paul W 12:15, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

My great great grandfather was the chief engineer who designed it as the contractor to Mr Barlow. As far as I'm aware, it was for this project that he invented his first tunneling shield that went on to become the very first tunnel boring machine (TBM) design in history that got built. While Barlow had a pending patent in 1864,it was not approved before his death whereas Jim Greathead's patent was approved and designed independently of Barlow's. This came to light in my research through the help of the librarian at the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, 2018. Prior to the Tower Subway, there were no cylindrical tunnels under the Thames which is probably why it is the oldest. Ashattock (talk) 00:03, 3 August 2020 (UTC)

Problem (?) in Lede
I am having difficulty with the following phrase:
 * "...since it operated over a very short distance using a single car moved by a stationary engine, it may be more accurate to call it a horizontal lift."

Since, by definition, a lift moves in a vertical plane, could this be construed as OR? Could we not call it, with almost equal validity, an "underwater ferry", since it provided a ferry(ing) service across a body of water?

Maybe it is the use of "more accurate" that rankles. I don't know. Something doesn't sound right.

EdJogg (talk) 16:25, 12 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Who cares? It's gone now! -- EdJogg (talk) 12:38, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

picture of shield
A picture of the Barlow-Greathead shield used would be great. Rod57 (talk) 12:32, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Italian description
The description by Edmondo De Amicis seems to contain some poetic licence. He says that the tunnel 'undulates like a great intestine', whereas the illustration shows it dead straight, and that the floor 'moves under your feet like the deck of a vessel'. Why would it move, being bored through stable clay?

He also mentions that 'the walls sweat like those of an aqueduct', so presumably the water had to be pumped out, but there is no mention of this in the article. PhilUK (talk) 14:06, 2 August 2020 (UTC)