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Ever since visiting the Pimlico Steam tunnel a few years ago ive always wanted to do more tunnels of the underwater variety, and after stumbling across a article reviewing two which had recently undergone a mass clean i thought that would be a good place to start.
I met up with my friend and we headed off into the snow, of to the mega pollutant that is London. We briefly stocked up on supplies and food and headed over to our entrance.
We popped the cover and headed down and into a large chamber with about 7 ladder taking us down to the floor. We seemed to be midway along so we decided to head north to begin with. The tunnels themselves had only just been cleaned last year and checked for damages and leaks but only 8 months on there was newly formed pools of bright yellow gunk lining the floors every now and then, and small droplets of water dripping from the roof.
Midway up the tunnel there was a huge dent in the ceiling where the tunnel had almost caved in to the pressure of the river above. A few emergency support beams had been welded in place. After 800 meters or so of walking we came to the end a small chamber with ladders leading up to a concrete manhole.
As i shone my torch around i came across a black object proper up against a wall. On closer inspection it turned out to be a briefcase with what looked like "London Electric" printed on the front. I clicked the top and my eyes lit up when i saw the contents. Blueprints and diagrams of several tunnels which ran beneath the river including the most detailed drawings of the two we were in now.
After taking a few "documentation" photos we headed back down the tunnel to the southern side. We eventually came to a series of stair which took us up into a large chamber with signs for Tunnel A + B printed on the walls. In the middle was a staircase leading to a cover at the top of a ladder.
We left the hatch for now and headed down tunnel B. A few feet bigger then tunnel A and had what looked like shelves running along the side. Apart from that this tunnel was the same as "A" but towards the end it split into two with a smaller tunnel heading of to the left. We continued on with the one we were in until we reached the end. I received the fright of my life while walking under a manhole cover at the exact second a lorry drove over the top. The sound and vibrations scared the living hell out of me, i thought the tunnel was collapsing.
By now i was getting tired and we had a long walk back to our entrance. We took a few pictures here and there on the way back, quickly lifting the hatch we found which led up into a room with a jammed door we could not get out of, oh well.
A good trip all in all and there should be more to come. 
The love of being in high places. Nothing can beat the feeling of standing above the clouds and smog of your nations capital, just taking a few moments to watch bystanders scuttle about their lives, acts which at the moment seem unimportant to you. It gives you a slight feeling of superiority.
London, while it does have a handful of tall buildings, there is nothing that i would genuinely call a "skyscraper". Those that come close are spread out in small cluster where building permission was granted.
But as you stand atop the highest floor you look out, watching the smallest foundations slowly becoming a new viewing platform for people like us to climb in years to come.
London will become a taller city, just not yet.
After the return visit to Devil's Gate we headed over to meet with Dsankt and Loops to explore Stoop's Limit drain, also known as the London Bridge Sewer. Another one the drains that keeps getting pushed back into the "Maybe next time" box, this time there was nothing to stop us, so down we went.
We emerged a small side pipe a short distance from the main junction. After a short walk we climbed down into the main branch. The junction chamber had two pipes flowing into it with the roofs construction similar to that of an ice house, on to the limit. The sewer was fairly deep which in itself is not a problem but couple that with the fact theres god knows what lurking beneath, ready to catch the feet of a weary traveler it proved to be quite a pain. My right foot clipped something heavy and i stumbled forward, in my mind i just remember Bradford and the events that earned me a stupid nickname and pulled my other foot over somehow keeping upright.
Now i had been out all day and was low on sleep so this and trying no to take the poo-dive of death made this drain rather un-enjoyable while walking although it was fun to stand still and admire the Victorian pride every so often. We finally arrived at the limit, but due to a set of new pipes spewing there hearts out we decided against going further although Dsankt was kind enough to slip through for a couple of pictures. After Dempsey re secured his magic duck tape waders we headed back to the main junction for more photos. We pondered exploring upstream but we still had things to do tonight and to be honest i wanted out.
London once more, its been a while since ive had a decent drain explore here. Having recently visited the big smoke to try out new leads which all proved to be something already explored or far far to deep to get anywhere. So today plans where made to visit Stoop's Limit drain and the upper parts of the Fleet. Both of which were instantly pushed back once more and off we ventured to Supersoaker, AKA the Regents Street Sewer.
Now anybody who has been to London knows that Regents street and streets below are amazingly busy and some sections rate as the busiest in London. All of which makes finding and gaining access a tad tricky. Undeterred we eventually found a quiet road which became our ticket down. We kitted up and headed off.
After several flights of stairs we came to the bottom a tiny sewer at stooping height. As this was a side pipe and not the main tunnel we put our money on it being bigger when it joined the main section and braved the backbreaking walk. All was going according to plan, we were now able to stand up due to a few more mini sewers joining and we were making good progress until we came to what can only be described as a wall of water.
Three small pipes where discharging their content a few meters up which once collided spread out to create the waterfall. Hmm. We had only just started and i didn't feel like getting wet, but, on the other hand this was probably the only sensible manhole we could find. We sized up our options and decided why not lets go!.
I went first got a steady footing and made a break for it. While i was under the water for less then a second i instantly felt the cold chill of wet on my back and my bag was drenched!. Loops looked at me clearly seeing that this was crazy. But i was wet already and i was going to maker damn sure he came through too!. Once through we continued along the pipe having to pass another three waterfalls, luckily none where as big as the first one.
We eventually came to the main junction another sewer joined to the east combining into a round 8ft yellow brick pipe and too the north was a large entrance chamber identical to the grand shaft in dover. We stood up with relief our backs thanking us loudly.
We set off down a rather uneventful pipe, with a few large entrance chambers lined with stone and a few side tunnels along the way. One thing i did notice was this tunnel was unbelievably bendy. Even through it runs down one road it changed direction every 10 meters as if slaloming round something.
In the distance we could hear a heavy rushing sound, which judging by how far we had traveled, we presumed to be the northern interceptor. The pipe shrunk to 7ft and diverted downwards in a s bend slope. The speed at which the water cascaded down was incredible but very shallow so we pushed on, once more getting very wet, only to find the pipe was heavily backlogged due to silt probably caused by a diverting wall stopping normal flow heading further down the pipe and into the interceptor. Damn! after all we've done to get here we couldn't continue. I tried my luck but it was no good i managed only 5 meter before i was 3 ft in silt and my head was close to the water.
We eventually gave up and headed back to our entrance, taking a few photos and renewing that wet feeling which i had only just gotten rid of. We only explored probably 25-30% of the drain but we told ourselves we would return to find a way into the downstream sections, but this wasn't the way.
