Old Swan Shaft? King William Street

[Deleted]

I was reading this page King William Street Station and i'm confused about the old swan shaft. How can you have a shaft in the water?

[Chris M]

My guess is that caissons would be used.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caisson_%28engineering%29

[Deleted]

thats cool never heard of one of those before. is there any photos of it, or was it demolished before cameras were invented?

[Chris M]

While cameras were invented they were nowhere near as ubiquitous as they were even 20 years ago, each photograph was much more expensive and difficult to produce, and not even the ones that were taken have survived to this day.

Its possible there are some, I've not seen any but then I've never looked for any either.
I think Amazing Electric Tube: History of the City and South London Railway by P. Holman is regarded as one of the definitive (if not the) definitive work on the CSLR so it wouldn't surprise me if there was one in there if one exists.
It's not a book I have in my collection though, so I'm not sure, perhaps another member here has a copy.

[neilw]

There's a description and a picture in this book. Basically they used 13ft diameter cast iron rings bolted together to form the shaft lowered onto the riverbed. By excavating through the middle, the shaft was sunk down to the depth of the tunnels, presumably adding to the top as they went. Pump the water out and you have a cofferdam from which to work. A brick structure was constructed at the bottom with four exits from which the two bores in each direction were commenced. The river was chosen as a suitable place from which to remove the spoil, the streets either side of the river proving impossible to use.

[North End]

Sept 5, 2013 7:30:49 GMT neilw said:

There's a description and a picture in this book. Basically they used 13ft diameter cast iron rings bolted together to form the shaft lowered onto the riverbed. By excavating through the middle, the shaft was sunk down to the depth of the tunnels, presumably adding to the top as they went. Pump the water out and you have a cofferdam from which to work. A brick structure was constructed at the bottom with four exits from which the two bores in each direction were commenced. The river was chosen as a suitable place from which to remove the spoil, the streets either side of the river proving impossible to use.

As a method of construction, although it was the pioneer, it was not to be unique - the Bakerloo and W&C railways also used similar river shafts river during their construction.

The upper part of the shaft was backfilled following completion of the works, however the base remains, bricked up above the level of the upper running tunnel. The base of the shaft can still be accessed via King William Street station and the empty running tunnels.

Anyone know if there's anything to be seen at tunnel level of the other river shafts on the Bakerloo and W&C?

[railtechnician]

Sept 4, 2013 18:30:32 GMT @jwilliamsm3 said:

I was reading this page King William Street Station and i'm confused about the old swan shaft. How can you have a shaft in the water?

The answer to your question can be found on page 477 of 'The Engineer' magazine June 7th 1889, no photos but some nice sketches.


download it here

[Deleted]

great interesting stuff thanks all

[tomek]

At the bottom of this page
www.abandonedstations.org.uk/King_William_Street_1.html
you can see a photo of the Old Swan shaft. 

[Deleted]

Leading on from that website, does the original London Bridge deep level station building still exist? It's the last picture on this page:

www.abandonedstations.org.uk/King_William_Street_5.html

On Google Streetview, the upper (later?) floors have been demolished, but it's unclear how old the image is:

Google Streetview

[miff]

The streetview is dated (bottom left) June 2012. Don't know if the building is still there.

[keerde]

The station has now been completly demolished, with a new cheap build around the lift shaft only for ventilation purposes and probable emergency stair exit.

[crusty54]

Sept 8, 2013 4:50:10 GMT keerde said:

The station has now been completly demolished, with a new cheap build around the lift shaft only for ventilation purposes and probable emergency stair exit.

Think the building is still there and has been integrated into the new office block.

[Deleted]

There is or was until recently an LUL office building called Three Castles House in the basement of which was access to the old CSLR station.
Many years ago now with a colleague I went down to have a look and actually accessed the running tunnels under the river.
We walked to King William St station ( which was in the basement of the old Automobile Associations headquarters on the
north side of London Bridge)
We couldn't get very far up through the old station due to locked doors and we were aware that perhaps we shouldn't have been there so didn't stay long. Old swan shaft was seen as was the other shaft near the other side of the river. The tunnels run one above the other at this point and the shafts form sumps for water to collect.
Stalactites abound in the tunnels and to say the least they are very spooky, especially when a boat goes along the river above you as you can hear the motor throbbing away.
I really wish I'd taken a camera.

[crusty54]

The top floors of Three Castles House were removed (which caused water leaks which affected the fire system below).

The remainder is now part of the new block.

[keerde]

Crusty54, I walk past the old station site every day I work and am afraid to say that it is no more, having been demolished and is presently being constructed to have a round facade outside the old lift shaft, the new build block terminates close to this but is not integrated as there is a gap of about 15-20 yards between the two which is to remain open space. It seemed odd at the time that they went to all the construction trouble of placing the new railway bridge which was within touching distance to the old station upper floors, only then to demolish the station after the bridge construction was complete!

[Deleted]

what id give to visit a disused station!!

[Deleted]

Sept 5, 2013 10:56:46 GMT railtechnician said:

Sept 4, 2013 18:30:32 GMT @jwilliamsm3 said:

I was reading this page King William Street Station and i'm confused about the old swan shaft. How can you have a shaft in the water?

The answer to your question can be found on page 477 of 'The Engineer' magazine June 7th 1889, no photos but some nice sketches.


download it here

Thank you for sharing that scan of 'The Engineer', RT. A most interesting read.

[trt]

Sept 8, 2013 19:46:39 GMT keerde said:

Crusty54, I walk past the old station site every day I work and am afraid to say that it is no more, having been demolished and is presently being constructed to have a round facade outside the old lift shaft, the new build block terminates close to this but is not integrated as there is a gap of about 15-20 yards between the two which is to remain open space. It seemed odd at the time that they went to all the construction trouble of placing the new railway bridge which was within touching distance to the old station upper floors, only then to demolish the station after the bridge construction was complete!

Same here. Weird behaviour, but that's what you get in London and what gives it some of its character. Spend millions on brick-proof retaining walls during a demolition only to knock down the thing they were protecting 6 months later. Then there's the disused steps at London Bridge under the Shard. Will they ever reopen those? Lovely functional tiling in there.