39 Furnival Street – The Gateway to a Secret Underground World…

A few weeks ago now, me & And went to visit some of the many buildings that formed part of the Open House weekend here in London. We had an excellent afternoon exploring buildings usually closed to us commoners, and we saw some amazing things, any number of which could easily form the basis of a future post…

But the one thing that has really stuck with me was a building that we didn’t even go into, only walking past it on the way to somewhere else.

Since taking these photos, I’ve found out that the intriguing facade on the left belongs to No. 39 Furnival Street (which is just off High Holborn near Chancery Lane Tube) and is a far more interesting thing than I ever could have imagined…

Hidden behind the heavy duty hoist, the oversized ventilation grill and the formidable steel doors is a goods lift, that dates back to the late 1940’s and which leads down to an endless warren of tunnels known initially as The Chancery Lane Deep Shelter, and latterly as the Kingsway Trunk Exchange, a secret underground installation that began life at the end of WWII…

To hugely summarise the contents of the numerous websites on the subject (of which Subterranea Britannica is the most scarily in depth and where much of this post has been gleaned from) it was after the Blitz of London in 1940 that the idea of deep shelters began to develop. A number of locations were chosen across London, one of which was below the Central Line tunnels that ran along Chancery Lane. Two parallel tunnels approximately 380m long were constructed over the next 5 years, with the primary access being off Furnival Street.

After the war, the tunnels were briefly occupied by nearly 400 tons of Public Records Office documents, until in the late 1940’s, with the Government’s increasing realisation of how vulnerable the Capital’s communications networks would be in a time of conflict, it was decided to transform the tunnels into a protected trunk telephone exchange.

This huge undertaking was completed in 1954 and the resultant “underground town” became home to (at its peak) over 200 workers a day, who could variously enjoy the delights of the canteen, the recreation areas and the sick bay, confident in the knowledge that if the world was to end, they would still be able to connect phone calls from America…

Under the auspices of The Post Office, the Kingsway Exchange continued to operate secretly until the early 1980’s, when as the equipment became increasingly redundant and the telephone industry developed its  digital and mobile formats, the decision was finally taken to abandon the installation to obscurity.

And there it has remained. Other than a few visits from interested Societies and enthusiasts, it looks like it has been more or less empty ever since, although my impression is that much of the equipment is still there and the space itself is just waiting for a new use…

The original shaft that sits behind the facade of 39 Furnival Street..

One of the main tunnels of the Kingsway Exchange sometime in the 1960s.

Martin Leibscher – A Man with Opportunities…

We’ve been working on a prestigious restaurant project in Central London for the last 8 months or so and as it finally comes close to completion, I was carrying out that age old architects task of snagging earlier this week (basically looking for faults in the contractors work) when I came across a very long and impressively bound book sitting on one of the newly completed seats.

I didn’t recognise the name and the book itself was sealed (so I still don’t know exactly what it contains) but when I looked up Martin Leibscher online, I was rewarded with these rather amazing panoramic photos..

Leibscher is obviously a man happy in his own skin as all his photos seem to be of him, and not just self portraits, but many, many self portraits all in the single image..

Whilst not in any sense the worlds most classically attractive man, there is something powerful about the repetition of his face, and the sheer mass of Leibscher’s across each image, that overcomes any misgivings one might have about his appearance…

I must admit that I quite like them. They have a dynamism that seems to offset the obviously very laboured and time intensive manipulation processes that each image must undoubtedly entail…

One more thing, in the image above there is a rather ominous dead woman floating in the swimming pool and it wouldn’t surprise me if Herr Leibscher is a bit of a joker and has hidden or planted other things in his photos…

The trouble is that there are so many details in these obviously very large images, that it’s well nigh impossible to see everything on these versions taken from the internet…

Simplified Tube Map

Just came across this bit of wonderfulness on the Twittersphere…

As and when I find out where it originated from I’ll update the post, but until then I’ll try and resist the temptation to mentally add more generic area descriptions, because although that would be fun, it kind of defeats the point…

Swans way – The Fugitive Kind (1984)

I had a very enjoyable afternoon today listening to an album I’ve neither heard nor thought about since sometime last century…

I think it must have been someone on the radio talking about swans or fugitives (or something, I’m not quite sure now), but whatever, there was the idea and hey presto there it was on Spotify…

Like most people who have any knowledge of Swans way, I guess it was their appearance on The Tube in the early 1980’s that spiked my interest in the band.

Not in any sense my usual fare, Swans way were a smartly dressed three piece comprising Robert Shaw on vocals and sax, Maggie Du Monde on drums and Rick P. Jones on double Bass. Together they created a rich, semi orchestral sound with a brass section and a strong sense of soul and rhythm. As I say not in nay sense my usual thing at all, but there was something about these songs and those vocals that lifted them above the everyday…

Beautifully crafted and evocative, this was one of those records I played so much at University, that I literally wore the grooves out, making my copy now almost unlistenable in parts. And how do I know that I listened to it so much? Because despite not having heard it for all these years, I still knew all the words, all the tunes, all the musical breaks and all the little flourishes. It’s been sitting there in my head all these years waiting to be rediscovered…

Their big tune was Soul Train, a lush and atmospheric track which you can watch below to get a feel for their sound (and if you click the picture above you can listen to the whole album via the wonder of Spotify)

No idea why they only made one album, when they were this good together (musical differences I suspect) although I do know that the drummer and bass player went on to (slightly) greater success with a band called Scarlet Fantastic.

Maybe in these days of reunion and reconciliation, the possibility of some future gigs might not be out of the question… Personally I can think of nothing better than singing along to When The Wild Calls or The Anchor somewhere appropriate like The Union Chapel in Islington…

Joe Kittinger & Felix Baumgartner at The Edge of Space…

It’s a real shame that, due to gusty winds at the jump site above Roswell, New Mexico, Felix Baumgartner had to abandon his attempt to make the highest freefall jump in history. His plans to leap from the mind numbing height of 37 kilometers above the earth’s surface last Tuesday, are now on hold until better weather comes along.

During his descent he would have theoretically broken the sound barrier, travelling faster than 1240km/h… (or about 1km every 3 seconds) and subjected his body to all manner of potentially fatal experiences including boiling blood, uncontrolled spinning and exploding lungs..

The event would have been (and presumably still will be when the time is right) captured by a live stream feed from over 30 video and stills cameras, 5 of which were to be attached to his pressure suit.

Baumgartner was hoping to break a record set way back in 1960 by the American Joe Kittinger who as part of Project Excelsior jumped out of a platform attached to a helium balloon at 31 km above the earth’s surface. It took him about an hour and a half to get to the jump height and about 15 minutes to get home, 4½ of which were freefall through the Earth’s stratosphere where he achieved a staggering maximum speed of 988km/h.

Amazingly there is footage of this fantastic achievement… and here it is. Someone’s even added a rather excellent drum and bass soundtrack which kicks in just as he jumps…)

Can you imagine what it must feel like to look down at your own planet so far below and then just step off…

So whilst the recorded quality and coverage of Kittinger’s freefall attempt may pale against what I imagine will be a beautifully edited and comprehensive visual record of Baumgartner’s jump (when it finally happens), these shaky and grainy images remind us that this courageous US Airman, who despite his first attempt going horribly wrong (he lost consciousness, got into a flat spin, experienced G forces more than 20 times that of gravity and only survived thanks to his automatic parachute opener) got back in the gondola, went up for a another go and did something quite unbelievable, probably using equipment that was barely suitable for the task and that no one would do again for more than 50 years…

I’ve been Freshly Pressed…

I’m still amazed at how many people have now read my Underground Guerrilla Signage post from a couple of weeks back. After an initial surge of more than 15,500 in one day, the post has generated more than 130,000 views in the last four weeks…

When I wrote in early July of my excitement at reaching 100,000 hits since starting the blog (a period of about 26 months), little did I realise that by the end of September (i.e. 3 months later) I would be at over 275,000…

And to cap it all off, possibly the most exciting bit of news (for me anyway) is that my post was chosen as one of WordPress’s “Freshly Pressed” blogs, a feature where each day a “handful” of the best and most interesting posts are chosen and added to the site…

I had no idea that I had made this select group until one of the over 120 people who have kindly taken the time to comment on the post congratulated me…

How cool is that…

And before you all start to tut, I’m fully aware how narcissistic all this self congratulation can appear.. but trust me, I’m a well rounded human being and I promise I wont let it go to my head…

(Much)

Steve Thomas Travel Posters

I’m liking the work of Steve Thomas at the moment, an American (I think) illustrator and graphic designer…

Like most things that appeal to me, it’s a very simple idea that’s been executed very well.. Steve takes imaginary or unreachable destinations and then creates a travel poster advertising it as a holiday destination..

In each case there is an instantly recognisable feature/ landmark, a cheeky written reference to the source of the idea, and always a very good reason to go there…

Drawn in a soft 1930’s Halcyon style, I like the inherent contradiction within the images, wherein something you know to be made up or totally inaccessible, becomes an almost achievable destination, thanks to the familiarity of the presentational format.

The Star Wars ones I think are especially good (but then anyone whose read more than a couple of posts on this blog, would probably know that already…)