The tunnel was originally opened as a single bore in 1897 by the Prince of Wales as a major transport project to improve commerce and trade in London's East End.

It remains the easternmost free fixed road crossing of the Thames, and regularly suffers congestion, to the extent that tidal flow schemes were in place from 1978 until their controversial removal in 2007.

[6][7] The initial proposal, made by Sir Joseph Bazalgette, called for three parallel tunnels, two for vehicular traffic and one for foot,[8] with an expected completion date of works within seven years.

[9] To clear the site in Greenwich, more than 600 people had to be rehoused,[12] and a house reputedly once owned by Sir Walter Raleigh had to be demolished.

[13] The workforce was largely drawn from outside London; the tunnel lining was manufactured in Glasgow, while the manual labour came from provincial England, particularly Yorkshire.

In 1930, John Mills, MP for Dartford, remarked that HGVs delivering from Essex to Kent could not practically use any crossing of the Thames downstream of the tunnel.

[7] In the late 1960s, proposals were made to connect the tunnel with a free-flow, grade-separated motorway system as part of the London Ringways project.

[27][28] On 18 January 1979, an anonymous caller to the Press Association informed them that the Provisional IRA had planted a bomb in the tunnel that was scheduled to detonate at midnight.

While the Metropolitan Police were searching the tunnel, the bomb detonated at 12:40 a.m., causing an explosion in a gas holder near the southern exit.

[29][30] A Belfast man was jailed in May 1983 for his role in the bombing,[31] and was eventually released at the end of his sentence some 17½ years later, still professing pride in his IRA participation.

[35] Underground railway links include the Jubilee line from North Greenwich (TfL) to Canning Town on the east and Canary Wharf on the west.

The Docklands Light Railway also passes under the Thames between Island Gardens at the southern end of the Isle of Dogs and Cutty Sark in the centre of Greenwich.

[42] To relieve the congestion, a tidal flow system was introduced in 1978, allowing northbound traffic to use the western lane of the eastern tunnel.

Due to its sharp turns with restricted headroom, high-sided vehicles can only use the left-hand lane of the western tunnel, so it was not possible to reverse the tidal flow in the evening.

In April 2007, the morning tidal flow was discontinued, after reports by TfL and the Metropolitan Police (MPS) of an increase in dangerous motoring behaviour; these blamed poor driving, such as overtaking, for the decrease in safety during counterflow operations.

[44] The ending of the counterflow system has brought protests from users of the tunnel and those experiencing increased congestion due to the change.

[47][48] Responding to this, Paul Watters from the AA said "We’ve already seen the Western extension of the congestion charge dropped because it was hugely unpopular and I think tolling on the Blackwall Tunnel will be as controversial as that.

TfL commissioner Sir Peter Hendy said that "this partnership working will help improve traffic flow on one of the busiest routes in the capital.

[52] In 2010, the southbound tunnel was affected by planned closures for maintenance from 10 pm to 5 am, Thursday to Sunday inclusive,[38] and over a number of whole weekends.

[15] On 10 December 1996, a man drove a Mercedes truck supporting a crane towards the southbound tunnel, ignored warnings that his vehicle was over-height, and struck a gantry, breaking a steel reinforcement frame in the process.

[53] To try to prevent closures of this nature, an LED noticeboard was set up in the northbound approach, counting the number of breakdowns and accidents per month occurring inside the tunnel.

[15] During the 2010s the tunnel has been closed to motor traffic to provide cyclists access to the RideLondon event, although this arrangement is no longer in place.

[5] Taxis, blue badge holders, wheelchair-accessible and 'zero-emission capable' private hire vehicles licensed by TfL will be exempt.