PLANS to spruce up the historic Wapping Underground station on the East London Line are being considered by the local planning authority. It involves a scheme more in keeping with the shaft originally designed by Brunel who dug the world’s first tunnel under a river in 1843, linking Wapping to Rotherhithe
PLANS to spruce up the historic Wapping Underground station on the East London Line are being considered by Tower Hamlets planning authority.
It involves a scheme more in keeping with the shaft originally designed by the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel who dug the world’s first tunnel under a river in 1843, linking Wapping to Rotherhithe each side of the Thames.
A planning application was lodged by Transport for London last month to modernise the station entrance, built when the tunnel switched to steam trains in 1871 which hasn’t changed since the 1960s.
The steel elevator shaft inside Brunel’s original shaft is also being strengthened and two lifts replaced in time for the line reopening next year, when it is extended north from Whitechapel to Dalston and south from New Cross to Croydon.
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