Kingsway tramway subway

The decision in 1898 to clear slum districts in the Holborn area provided an opportunity to use the new streets for a tramway connecting the lines in the north and south.

Following the pattern of tramways in New York (the Murray Hill Tunnel) and Boston (the MBTA Green Line), it was decided to build this as an underground connection.

After leaving the subway at the south end, trams turned right along the Embankment to Westminster Bridge or left on a service from Bloomsbury to the Hop Exchange.

The tracks passed through cast iron tubes underneath the Fleet sewer before rising slightly to enter Holborn tramway station.

A new sharp curve was built under Lancaster Place to enable an exit through the western side wall of Waterloo Bridge and a triangular junction with the through line was constructed.

Work started on 11 September of that year, resulting in the replacement of the cast iron tubes by a new steel girder-supported roof and the diversion of the sewer.

Routes were now Hackney to Wandsworth or Tooting, Leyton to Westminster, Highbury to Waterloo station or Norbury and Archway to Kennington.

The abandonment programme began in 1935 with trams in South-West, West, North-West, North and East London mostly being replaced by trolleybuses.

After closure, a number of cartoons appeared in London newspapers based on the closed tramway, with ghostly trams or 'lost' tube trains.

[4] Until the opening of the Thames Barrier in 1984, a portable building near the north of the tunnel was used as a flood control headquarters for the Greater London Council.

Between 8 October and 8 November 2009, the tunnel hosted a site-specific art installation called Chord by the artist Conrad Shawcross.

[7] The Greater London Authority publication Human Streets in March 2016 contained the proposal that the tunnel could be opened for cycling, in order to connect cyclists using the busy Theobalds Road route with the East-West Cycle Superhighway on the Embankment, thereby avoiding four junctions difficult for cyclists.

[8] In July 2021 it was announced that visitors would be able to tour the tunnel, platforms and halls of the Kingsway station, in a programme organised by the London Transport Museum.

[9] The southern section of the abandoned subway between the Embankment and the Strand Underpass was converted into a branch of the Buddha Bar chain of bar/restaurants.