An interesting review from Museum buff Frankie Roberto who in his
youth used to badger his parents to take him to museums - so he is no
doubt familiar with all the best tube connections. (Linking museums to
the tube could be the basis of an interesting tube map).
http://www.greatexhibitions.co.uk/bl...ilding-centre/
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Underground: London’s Hidden Infrastructure (The Building Centre) By
Frankie Roberto.
The exhibition space in the Building Centre (also sometimes marketed
under the ‘New London Architecture’ brand) is still fairly unknown,
making it feel like a great discovery when you first stumble across
it. The space really took off in July 2005, with the building of a
huge scale model of London, which is now on permanent display and
often updated with the latest proposed development. As well as this,
there’s a rolling programme of temporary exhibitions devoted to
different aspects of London planning, design and architecture.
Underground is the latest of these, taking a look at the warren of
tunnels and hidden infrastructure beneath the city.
The exhibition narrative runs roughly chronologically, and so starts
off at King’s Cross station, underneath which the Roman Queen Boudica
is said to have been buried, sparking a fascination with the
subterranean that Londoners have held ever since. Historic underground
structures in the city include roman ruins, buried rivers, and coffin-
housing catacombs built when traditional cemeteries filled up during
the Black Death.
The most famous sort of underground infrastructure in London is of
course the tube network, and correspondingly ‘transport’ is one of the
key exhibition themes. Looking back, there are some photographs of
disused tube stations, tube stations used as air raid shelters, and
tube stations connected to secret security bunkers. In more
contemporary terms, there’s a look at the Jubilee line extension, the
‘High Speed 1′ Eurostar link to St Pancras, and the planned Crossrail
project. The star exhibit, though, is an architectural scale model of
the complex network of underground lines beneath King’s Cross. The
colour-coded tubes let you see how the Picadilly, Circle,
Metropolitan, Victoria, Northern and Thameslink lines manage to snake
their way around each other in a way that would be impossible to
explain in a two dimensional diagram.
Other underground infrastructures covered include London’s historic
sewer system, built by the Victorians to such a high specification
that it has only just begun to reach its full capacity today. There’s
also a feature on the Thames Water Ring Main, an incredible network of
deep-level tunnels (twice as far down as the Underground) built in
1993 to improve the supply of drinking water around London. Further
forward, there’s a look at the possible underground infrastructure of
the future, including eco-friendly combined heat and power services,
and a ‘multi-utility’ system being planned for Elephant and Castle.
Despite being contained a small space, the exhibition offers a glimpse
into all manner of interesting underground projects and services.
Whilst it’s mostly text and images, there are also a few videos and a
good selection of models to keep you interested. Plus, you get an
excellent free exhibition catalogue to take home, full of photographs
and extra information.
A series of breakfast talks accompany the exhibition, including one by
Andrew Smith from Subterranea Britannica, a society dedicated to the
study of some of the more esoteric man-made underground structures,
which promises to be interesting.
If you live in London, it’s definitely worth seeking out this
exhibition, especially if you haven’t been to the Building Centre
before. Just remember though, it’s unfortunately not open on weekends.
Underground: London’s Hidden Infrastructure is on at the Building
Centre in London until 19 April 2008. Admission free.
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