What lies beneath

The paper looks back at the fascinating history of London´s Kingsway Tunnels. There´s nothing unusual about sitting in a London city office and hearing rumbling from the Central Line below. But pop through an unmarked blue door near to number 33 High Holborn, and you could find yourself in a lift heading down to a complex where Central Line trains rattle past overhead. For here, 100ft under the city streets, hides a mile-long complex of horizontal and vertical shafts, fully equipped with electricity and water supplies and covering an area of 77,000 square feet. Known as the Kingsway Tunnels, the site has served as a bomb shelter for MI6 spies, a Public Records Office storage facility, and played host to the most important telephone line in the world.