There are many ventilation shafts for the underground rail and road networks of london but you would never even though where ventilation shafts, because of the way they are designed to look Just like buildings or monuments
I nearly got caught up in that fire. The tube I was in stopped, the area was full of smoke and the driver didn't open the doors and drove the heck out of there. I don't know if he was told to do so or if he just went "nope".
Someone I know was in the Tube train due into the station next. Suddenly the train stopped, the lights went out and they could hear the sound of the fire and their train was filled with smoke and they smelt the smell of barbecuing meat. Which they later realised was the smell of the victims being burnt.
Smoking had been officially banned on The Underground a few weeks before that fire. It started when the accumulated debris under the escalator caught fire, possibly/probably by a discarded cigarette. I remember reading in news of one young Italian tourist who'd only been in London for a day was one of those killed. She was about 21, I think. London Underground had started a refurbishment programme for the network but just a bit too late for this station
@@naamadossantossilva4736the fire would likely have been less severe if govt. inspired financial savings had not seen cleaning of dust, discarded cigarettes etc reduced from daily to alternative days ... and there had been a working fire alarm system. btw, even during WW2 nightly escalator shaft cleaning was seen as so important that it continued
On the evening of the King's X fire, I remember changing trains there, and walking through tunnels between platforms with many other tube travellers, walking through thick, knee-high smoke with several people exchanging glances as if to say: is this 'normal'? As my train left the platform, the draught from the train made the smoke curl up to the roof of the platform tunnel: an image I'll never forget.
They worried the design wouldn't 'fit in' with the surroundings - shame the same issue wasn't in mind when building other buildings like the Shard & the Walkie Talkie 😅😅
Remember that the Eiffel tower was only meant to be there for 20 years (the time Eiffel was to be allowed to commercially exploit the tower, as most of the funds to built it were financed and to be recouped that way). And yeah, lots of people hated it as it would not “fit in”, yet the public loved it and it became rather useful for radio and TV transmissions (a jammer helped disrupt german communications during WW1, slowing the Central Powers’ advance and helping the Entente win first Marne). Now it is nearly impossible to imagine it being not there.
@@frofrofrofro900 yes, if you like playing sim city, in reality they are hideous and should not have been built in London....but I suppose that is the least of Londons problems at the moment.
Yes and certain Tube stations had up lighters on the escalators. The aesthetics were gorgeous. Necessary changes were made, and the lovely look of the underground has gone.
@@mitchellminer9597Macy’s department store (in NYC), is the only structure that has wooden escalators (dating back to when the store originally opened in 1858, but had the first wooden escalators put into the building in 1902)
One of the last wooden escalators was in a station in Sydney (Town Hall or Central I think), only taken out recently. I remember my blind friend wasn’t able to take his guide dog on it because his claws would get stuck.
Another quiver to the great man's bow, also easily missed as it's hidden in plain sight; is an arched roof support in the final stretch of the W&C line passenger walkway just where it joins the Bank station's exits to the surface. It is, of course, the outer ring of his shield no less!
Thank you for this background. I remember the fire, as l had just left the station and was on my way home when l heard about it happening. Had totally forgotten the old escalators were wooden!
Proves we can still make things that look old, because when I tell you I would never have known that statue wasn't erected in 1897, if he hadn't said 1997...
There are lots of examples like this. Many new art installations are also bollards or obstacles to prevent car going into pedestrian area (either lost control or an attack like we began to see in Europe a while a ago). They would stop a tank.
It's doesn't compete with Rome, though. Rome is an open-air museum. London is not, so it's not true that wherever you look you see history. It's evident you have never been to Rome. London doesn't have the warmth, the colours and the beauty of the Eternal City. No city has.
I so concur...👍 Marc Brunel son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel completed his father works, and perfected the tunnelling shield, which almost claimed his life during a breach.
That's tunnelling shield, not travelling shield. Marc Brunel's invention was rectangular and propelled forward by screw jacks. The idea for a cylindrical shield combined with cast iron tunnel segments was Peter Barlow's. Barlow held a number of patents, with several more pending, by the time of his death but he never actually constructed a tunnelling shield to his own design. Greathead was Barlow's pupil and he took the idea, improved it and added hydraulic propulsion to push the shield forward against the tunnel lining rings. There's an abandoned shield at Bank station. The modern tunnel boring machine is a direct descendant of Greathead's shield.
When you try to look smart but just end up looking foolish... Why do people do this?.. you think you know something clever that no one else does, when in reality you're just wrong and look stupid.
Not to use. I was living in North London at the time,( London Borough of Brent), and went to this station about a month before the fire. It's deep underground, requiring 2 (steep) escalators, and l vowed never to go there again as it 'creeped' me out. My instincts were, unfortunately, proved right. I admit l was worried about being trapped(or falling) as they appeared unsafe, rather than a fire. The victims of the fire died of smoke inhalation + 'crush' injuries, sustained in their attempts to get out 😢 It was 'rush' hour, and totally packed with people going home from work.
@@lisette2060 yes, l seem to remember that there was a pile of rubbish (cardboard boxes) underneath the escalator that ignited due to a cigarette being dropped, and nobody noticed that it was alight until the escalator had also already caught on fire. Simple human carelessness by management, cleaners and a member of the public useing the 'tube', leading to all those deaths 💔
@@helentee9863 Just imagine - the person responsible for starting that fire and the deaths of 31 people probably was and still is completely oblivious what they caused.
I can say that Marylebone (Bakerloo line) still had wooden escalators up until at least 1998, as I used the station occasionally and it always stood out to me as I found the (bigger) wooden treads hard to stand level on. Also: Following employment at London Underground (And being driven out by homophobic abuse) I started smoking, and still do to this day. I'm _stupidly_ careful about putting my butts out/avoiding ash fires, and I imagine the LUL staff fire training video of the time has a lot to do with that...
Well, to be completely honest, London Underground tube stations and network still to this day don't have enough safety measures and ventilation... It needs A LOT of improvement....
It’s one of those rare instances where knowing the functionality makes the statue even better. There’s something poetic about a statue of an engineer with a ventilation system built into it. Very steampunk.
Thank you for you wisdom i appreciate your videos as it help me live my life to purpose as i like to learn a new fact everyday as i believe everyday is a school day and your never too old to learn about the wonderful town you are from 😊
From personal experience with engineering students Having a Useful Solution that doubles as decoration is possibly the best gift an engineer could ever get
I remember that fire. I was working in Holborn and could see the flashing blue emergency services lights all the way up Greys Inn Road from Chancery Lane tube station.
Yes, Greathead did significantly improve the design, but the Tunneling Shield was *invented* and patented by one of England's greatest engineers, Marc Isambard Brunel.
I remember that being built and being a little puzzled by it. Now I know. I also vividly recall the Kings Cross fire. I was caught up in the massive traffic jam.
There's a fabulous playground outside of Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas. One feature is a boat that children can climb onto. The smokestack of the boat is, as is this statue, an airshaft.
There have been several examples of this type of engineering throughout londons history. For example, the Westminster clock tower (big ben) is a sewer vent.
Maybe an inspiration for the future era gigantic statues in the TV series "The Peripheral" where they disguise atmospheric scrubbers filtering the post apocalyptic air.
If you walk down to the Waterloo and City line at Bank you pass through the greathead shield that they used to dig the line. It's visible in the roof of the passageway
I remember when i heard the news about the fire and the WOODEN ESCALATOR. I was perplex about how that thing could still be there in this day and age, then i researched why and ... let just say the british considered " if it's not broken, why changing it". Good thing the few times i went to London i only had to go to that neighbourood once and went by bus ( i think it was Cornhill station ).
In 1986 I lived in London, and remember smoking in King's Cross...it was perfectly normal back then. The tunnel at the station wher covered with gigantic posters for s movie.
We have a similar statue in Newcastle found close to the back of Fenwick department store to deal with the city's underground metro. (An idea borrowed from the Victorians)
Gees, I thought the wooden escalators would have been changed out by then as they were metal, all the new ones were, so I would have thought when they did their yearly maintenance it would have been listed to be changed.
Seems to me like the underground tunnels in London were there before the 1800s … built by another civilisation. There are loads of closed tunnels under London, they probably just decided to keep these ones because they were by the City of London and served the ruling class in England (note The City of London is its own entity, it’s not London and is operated by the elites). There is a triangle: City of London rules the world finances, Washington DC rules the world’s military (Washington DC is a city it is not the same as Washington state), The Vatican rules the world’s religion (located bang in this middle of Rome, it is also a city). Places like Liverpool have underground tunnels …. all blocked off. Camden in London has a beautiful underground tunnel network that is closed off. The world is full of tunnels … loads in Cornwall and Dorset for example. The Chunnel was probably also already there, seems like they just updated it for modern transport. Isn’t it curious that we have only seen digital versions of the two machines that supposedly bored the Chunnel tunnels. One apparently got stuck mid way and is hidden between the walls 🙄, the other was apparently sold at a high price on EBay! You literally can’t make this stuff up!!! The latest edition the Elizabeth line was no doubt also already there too, they just re-vamped it and got it back in use. There are many people discovering and showing us hidden tunnels from another era.
Now that's a clever idea. It fits the aesthetics and honors a great engineer.
Exactly my thoughts. I wish this concept wouldn't be so hard to grasp these days. Everything is an eye sore.
Because London has an entire nations tax income to burn. That's why London looks so good while the rest is crumbling.
One of the shields is still visible in the pedestrian tunnel to the Waterloo and City line. It is bright red.
The city should spend some funds for cleaning and maintaining it though. Those dark drip marks are unsightly.
There are many ventilation shafts for the underground rail and road networks of london but you would never even though where ventilation shafts, because of the way they are designed to look Just like buildings or monuments
It follows the Victorian ethic of practical should also be beautiful
The Victorians have a lot to answer for and isn't for the best either..
@@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13 Is there anybody you approve? Apart from yourself beloved, of course?
I'm so sad that everyday items aren't made to be beautiful anymore
@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13 If you judge historical society by your modern leftist standards, then everyone in the past is like Hitler for you
@@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13
Well the victorians are all dead.
It’s in the past.
It’s history.
I nearly got caught up in that fire. The tube I was in stopped, the area was full of smoke and the driver didn't open the doors and drove the heck out of there. I don't know if he was told to do so or if he just went "nope".
Someone I know was in the Tube train due into the station next. Suddenly the train stopped, the lights went out and they could hear the sound of the fire and their train was filled with smoke and they smelt the smell of barbecuing meat. Which they later realised was the smell of the victims being burnt.
@@ThatsnewsTVoh my god! 😢
Those poor people 😢
My father was a Operator on the Victoria.
he told me they got a Radio Call
( Carrier Wave) not to stop at KXSP or open doors due to emergency
Yes several trains did that. It saved the folk on the trains, but also eliminated an escape route for those on the platforms. I remember it well.
Almost, literally a 'Sliding Doors' moment: small choices, a little bit of time, can be life changing & we often have no idea.
i feel like a statue of an engineer being an engineering solution is very funny
Smoking had been officially banned on The Underground a few weeks before that fire. It started when the accumulated debris under the escalator caught fire, possibly/probably by a discarded cigarette. I remember reading in news of one young Italian tourist who'd only been in London for a day was one of those killed. She was about 21, I think. London Underground had started a refurbishment programme for the network but just a bit too late for this station
Omg poor girl. My condolences to her family 😢
Did they found out who was the asshole who started the fire?
@@naamadossantossilva4736the fire would likely have been less severe if govt. inspired financial savings had not seen cleaning of dust, discarded cigarettes etc reduced from daily to alternative days ... and there had been a working fire alarm system. btw, even during WW2 nightly escalator shaft cleaning was seen as so important that it continued
@@CitytransportInfoplusohhh how DARE you talk about the REAL issues. 😂
Yes banned on the underground. In reality it was only banned and enforced on the tube. Everyone still lit up as soon as the got off tube.
On the evening of the King's X fire, I remember changing trains there, and walking through tunnels between platforms with many other tube travellers, walking through thick, knee-high smoke with several people exchanging glances as if to say: is this 'normal'? As my train left the platform, the draught from the train made the smoke curl up to the roof of the platform tunnel: an image I'll never forget.
That's an amazing image, knee high in smoke & everyone thinking "What the hell?!". The air movement curling the smoke is an evocative image, for sure.
I remember horrendous
Wait so did the train leaving actually ignited the fire or was one factor? Like intake oxygen from openings? Just curious
No, the fire started after a dropped cigarette fell into grease and lint gathered under a wooden-stepped escalator. How insane that sounds now!
They worried the design wouldn't 'fit in' with the surroundings - shame the same issue wasn't in mind when building other buildings like the Shard & the Walkie Talkie 😅😅
Sharp and walkie are great and match other buildings. Iconic view on all of them
Remember that the Eiffel tower was only meant to be there for 20 years (the time Eiffel was to be allowed to commercially exploit the tower, as most of the funds to built it were financed and to be recouped that way).
And yeah, lots of people hated it as it would not “fit in”, yet the public loved it and it became rather useful for radio and TV transmissions (a jammer helped disrupt german communications during WW1, slowing the Central Powers’ advance and helping the Entente win first Marne). Now it is nearly impossible to imagine it being not there.
@@frofrofrofro900 yes, if you like playing sim city, in reality they are hideous and should not have been built in London....but I suppose that is the least of Londons problems at the moment.
@Darcysbeau I like the Shard, but the 'Walkie Talkie' is hideous and broke all the planning laws.
Ikr those buildings are absolutely repellent
I had no idea they had wooden escalators
Sorely missed, but necessary alas.
The whole UndergrounD is a lot more clanking and screeching now, alot louder than necessary.
Yes and certain Tube stations had up lighters on the escalators. The aesthetics were gorgeous. Necessary changes were made, and the lovely look of the underground has gone.
I remember riding a wooden escalator somewhen back around 1965. Somewhere in the USA, deffo not London. I recall being skeptical of it.
@@mitchellminer9597 Macy's were early adopters apparently and kept them too. Maybe it was in one of their stores.
@@mitchellminer9597Macy’s department store (in NYC), is the only structure that has wooden escalators (dating back to when the store originally opened in 1858, but had the first wooden escalators put into the building in 1902)
I think we can all appreciate the efforts of Greathead.
I see what you did there! 😈
Did I come here for this? Yes. Yes.
I'm so glad someone made this joke.🤣
One of the last wooden escalators was in a station in Sydney (Town Hall or Central I think), only taken out recently. I remember my blind friend wasn’t able to take his guide dog on it because his claws would get stuck.
Another quiver to the great man's bow, also easily missed as it's hidden in plain sight; is an arched roof support in the final stretch of the W&C line passenger walkway just where it joins the Bank station's exits to the surface.
It is, of course, the outer ring of his shield no less!
What a brilliant solution combining engineering, science, the arts and culture. These are the sort of solutions the world is dying for.
Thank you for this background. I remember the fire, as l had just left the station and was on my way home when l heard about it happening. Had totally forgotten the old escalators were wooden!
Great idea. Love statues, and nice street furniture and hate those that have to deface or damage it.
Thank you for showing this "little things"😊🖖
Proves we can still make things that look old, because when I tell you I would never have known that statue wasn't erected in 1897, if he hadn't said 1997...
There are lots of examples like this.
Many new art installations are also bollards or obstacles to prevent car going into pedestrian area (either lost control or an attack like we began to see in Europe a while a ago).
They would stop a tank.
Wherever you look at in that city you will see a huge history behind!! Love London ❤
It's doesn't compete with Rome, though. Rome is an open-air museum. London is not, so it's not true that wherever you look you see history. It's evident you have never been to Rome. London doesn't have the warmth, the colours and the beauty of the Eternal City. No city has.
His sister was particularly keen to get married as soon as possible to change her surname I hear
She had many suitors because of the family name.
Pioneered the use of the travelling shield.
Patented in 1818 by Marc Brunel, and used to dig the Thames Tunnel before Greathead was born.
I so concur...👍
Marc Brunel son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel completed his father works, and perfected the tunnelling shield, which almost claimed his life during a breach.
That's tunnelling shield, not travelling shield. Marc Brunel's invention was rectangular and propelled forward by screw jacks. The idea for a cylindrical shield combined with cast iron tunnel segments was Peter Barlow's. Barlow held a number of patents, with several more pending, by the time of his death but he never actually constructed a tunnelling shield to his own design. Greathead was Barlow's pupil and he took the idea, improved it and added hydraulic propulsion to push the shield forward against the tunnel lining rings. There's an abandoned shield at Bank station. The modern tunnel boring machine is a direct descendant of Greathead's shield.
When you try to look smart but just end up looking foolish...
Why do people do this?.. you think you know something clever that no one else does, when in reality you're just wrong and look stupid.
Wooden escalators in 1987? How fascinating!
Not to use.
I was living in North London at the time,( London Borough of Brent), and went to this station about a month before the fire.
It's deep underground, requiring 2 (steep) escalators, and l vowed never to go there again as it 'creeped' me out.
My instincts were, unfortunately, proved right.
I admit l was worried about being trapped(or falling) as they appeared unsafe, rather than a fire.
The victims of the fire died of smoke inhalation + 'crush' injuries, sustained in their attempts to get out 😢
It was 'rush' hour, and totally packed with people going home from work.
@@helentee9863Fact was another careless smoker dropped a cigarett causing the catastrophy!
@@lisette2060 yes, l seem to remember that there was a pile of rubbish (cardboard boxes) underneath the escalator that ignited due to a cigarette being dropped, and nobody noticed that it was alight until the escalator had also already caught on fire.
Simple human carelessness by management, cleaners and a member of the public useing the 'tube', leading to all those deaths 💔
@@helentee9863 Just imagine - the person responsible for starting that fire and the deaths of 31 people probably was and still is completely oblivious what they caused.
I can say that Marylebone (Bakerloo line) still had wooden escalators up until at least 1998, as I used the station occasionally and it always stood out to me as I found the (bigger) wooden treads hard to stand level on.
Also: Following employment at London Underground (And being driven out by homophobic abuse) I started smoking, and still do to this day. I'm _stupidly_ careful about putting my butts out/avoiding ash fires, and I imagine the LUL staff fire training video of the time has a lot to do with that...
I’ve been a taxi driver for 33 years, driven past it many times, never noticed the statue 😂
christ. Hopefully I will never need a taxi in London then
@@cplcabs probably busy watching the road and trying not to run over pedestrians 😁
One thing a London blue,badge guide told me: people never look up and miss a lot.
Hopefully focused on the road you weren't looking up to notice it.
This is educational.
Just learned from you 💬
Thnx that you don't have propaganda in your clips.
Like this channel 🎉🎉🎉
There’s a “little ben” in Victoria which serves the same purpose I believe?
I love your videos.
Keep them coming.
Cool. Thank you for sharing!
This is why I enjoy living in London and grateful for the extra enlightenment and future 'must peek at places'.......keep up the good work ❤❤❤❤
They can make everything pretty if they wanted too.
In the middle of the street! GREAT!
If only the developers of 1 Poultry had been so considerate about the aesthetics of the area.
Wooden escalators is a mindfuck I had never even considered
Other than his great achievement, I admire the last name "Greathead". Just fabulous 😅
"Fabulous?" 🤔 Usually a certain group of men use that word 😁
@@Sacred_Fire Men that receive great head?
Brilliant! One of my favourite places in London and I never knew that.
Thank you so much for putting us in the picture!! 😮❤
Love your ‘snippet’s’ ! Thank you
💕THANK YOU for explaining this💕
Well, to be completely honest, London Underground tube stations and network still to this day don't have enough safety measures and ventilation... It needs A LOT of improvement....
And the parts that the public sees barely scratches the surface of the dangers of the crumbling infrastructure.
It’s one of those rare instances where knowing the functionality makes the statue even better. There’s something poetic about a statue of an engineer with a ventilation system built into it. Very steampunk.
Fascinating....thank you for 'adding to my knowledge ' !😊
Amazing!
St Pancras is the patron saint of the Pancreas.😌
Great story. Love this bits of history. I want to know where I’m I. Thank you. I’m your biggest fan !
Legend has it that his wife was a very happy woman
Wooden escalator steps.
Sturdy and still beautiful.
Never thought of such a thing!
Thank you for you wisdom i appreciate your videos as it help me live my life to purpose as i like to learn a new fact everyday as i believe everyday is a school day and your never too old to learn about the wonderful town you are from 😊
Beautiful, traditional and useful. So many cities would be more human places if they followed this trio as much as possible.
From personal experience with engineering students
Having a Useful Solution that doubles as decoration is possibly the best gift an engineer could ever get
I remember that fire. I was working in Holborn and could see the flashing blue emergency services lights all the way up Greys Inn Road from Chancery Lane tube station.
That statue of Greathead makes a very great head.
(You could call the rain cover on top of a ventilation shaft the shaft's "head.")
Brilliant combination of form and function
This is a new one!!! I can usually spot ventilation shafts in the open, but '95 was a few years before I worked in the city.
Yes, Greathead did significantly improve the design, but the Tunneling Shield was *invented* and patented by one of England's greatest engineers, Marc Isambard Brunel.
That's so amazing!
Oh dear! Good heavens! That was a bloody good idea! Pip pip! Cheerio! And all that sort of thing!
Fun fact: The hole in the O2 Arena (Millennium Dome) is a vent for the Blackwall Tunnel.
Outstanding, & Creative 👏
That wooden escalator looks wonderful😍
Greathead sounds like a something they’d name a bond girl
I remember that being built and being a little puzzled by it. Now I know. I also vividly recall the Kings Cross fire. I was caught up in the massive traffic jam.
It's also a traffic calmer
What a fantastic idea for a roleplay game! How to get the players to engage with the in game history!
There's a fabulous playground outside of Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas. One feature is a boat that children can climb onto. The smokestack of the boat is, as is this statue, an airshaft.
Remembering watching the docu when i was a kid.
So informative!
A man of innovation can appreciate inventive solutions.
Now that's functional design!
A fine inventor. Wonder what happened to the wood from the old escalators? I bet it was a wonderful hardwood of some sort.
There have been several examples of this type of engineering throughout londons history.
For example, the Westminster clock tower (big ben) is a sewer vent.
Nowadays they wouldn't even care about aesthetics
Maybe an inspiration for the future era gigantic statues in the TV series "The Peripheral" where they disguise atmospheric scrubbers filtering the post apocalyptic air.
Air vent leading to the bank
THANK YOU 😂
If you walk down to the Waterloo and City line at Bank you pass through the greathead shield that they used to dig the line. It's visible in the roof of the passageway
I love this kind of stuff about London.
This is genius.
And people say that aesthetics and utilites are mutually exclusive!
I remember when i heard the news about the fire and the WOODEN ESCALATOR. I was perplex about how that thing could still be there in this day and age, then i researched why and ... let just say the british considered " if it's not broken, why changing it".
Good thing the few times i went to London i only had to go to that neighbourood once and went by bus ( i think it was Cornhill station ).
Brilliant use of a great engineer.
In 1986 I lived in London, and remember smoking in King's Cross...it was perfectly normal back then. The tunnel at the station wher covered with gigantic posters for s movie.
That fire changed some laws too !
Wow, I walked by there more than a few times and never noticed the grates.
It would be appropriate to keep Mr Greathead clean. Everything around him looks well taken care of. Who dropped the ball?
I don't know why but wooden escalators sound wild to me.
Great idea but the statue is very controversial now. It should definitely be taken down and replaced.
if they would have cleaned the muck and dirt,oil and hair and what not else, there could have been NEVER a fire.THAT was the real reason for the fire.
Absolutely great, looks old and really fits in
Cool, must check it out next time I go back!?😊
Very interesting and attractive solution. Thanks
Wooden escalators??? Wtf? 😂
A statue of an engineer that was made to solve an engineering problem. No greater honor.
We have a similar statue in Newcastle found close to the back of Fenwick department store to deal with the city's underground metro. (An idea borrowed from the Victorians)
Gees, I thought the wooden escalators would have been changed out by then as they were metal, all the new ones were, so I would have thought when they did their yearly maintenance it would have been listed to be changed.
I went through the tube station in Kings Cross that night! I was early I was lucky!
Sure they'll find a reason to tear it down
Being an engineer I think he would have loved it.
Proudly South African here 😊
"Greathead".... Sounds like a Bond Girl from a James Bond movie
That statue is a literal monument to Great Head.
Crazy how James Henry Greathead is actually an ancestor of your mom who carries the great head name
An engineer would love that a tribute to him is also a functional piece of engineering.
Seems to me like the underground tunnels in London were there before the 1800s … built by another civilisation. There are loads of closed tunnels under London, they probably just decided to keep these ones because they were by the City of London and served the ruling class in England (note The City of London is its own entity, it’s not London and is operated by the elites). There is a triangle: City of London rules the world finances, Washington DC rules the world’s military (Washington DC is a city it is not the same as Washington state), The Vatican rules the world’s religion (located bang in this middle of Rome, it is also a city).
Places like Liverpool have underground tunnels …. all blocked off. Camden in London has a beautiful underground tunnel network that is closed off. The world is full of tunnels … loads in Cornwall and Dorset for example. The Chunnel was probably also already there, seems like they just updated it for modern transport. Isn’t it curious that we have only seen digital versions of the two machines that supposedly bored the Chunnel tunnels. One apparently got stuck mid way and is hidden between the walls 🙄, the other was apparently sold at a high price on EBay! You literally can’t make this stuff up!!! The latest edition the Elizabeth line was no doubt also already there too, they just re-vamped it and got it back in use. There are many people discovering and showing us hidden tunnels from another era.
Now thats clever very clever!