The resulting health crisis led to the creation of the London sewerage system (designed by Joseph Bazalgette) in the late nineteenth century.
The Thames Tideway Tunnel, due for completion in 2025, will be a deep tunnel 25 km (16 mi) long, running mostly under the tidal section of the River Thames through central London to capture, store and convey almost all the raw sewage and rainwater that currently overflows into the river.
It was planned as a cable-hauled railway, but the advent of electric traction resulted in a simpler solution, and the change was made before the cable system was built.
It was used as a pedestrian subway, as the company did not have enough money or finance to build the intended access ramps for horse-drawn traffic.
[6] In December 1980, the New Statesman revealed the existence of secret tunnels linking government buildings, which they claimed would be used in the event of a national emergency.
[7] Author Duncan Campbell discussed these facilities in more detail, in the book War Plan UK: The Truth about Civil Defence in Britain (1982).
[8] Peter Laurie wrote a book about these facilities, titled Beneath the City Streets: A Private Inquiry into the Nuclear Preoccupations of Government (1970).
Starting in 1861, Victorian engineers built miles of purpose-built subways large enough to walk through, and through which they could run gas, electricity, water and hydraulic power pipes.