Running shy of 4 miles in length, Great West Road located in West London is the gateway between the West of England and the city, and at just 12 feet below it is what you will find under roads throughout the country...water.
However, the giant pipes beneath this particular road carry 8 million gallons of water across London every day, forming one of the biggest drinking water mains in Europe.
The story begins...
I'd come across a compilation of old footage online (likely filmed in the 1960s) discussing some of London's hidden spaces, which encompassed a short clip discussing the water mains beneath Great West Road. Off the back of this, I searched online thoroughly for any potential lead mentioning it, but sadly to no avail, it almost seemed as if this place had completely slipped under the radar.
Fortunately, the clip showed just enough in the background in the first frame for me to be able to work out roughly where it might be, the only downside being that the Great West Road is just under 4 miles long, meaning I had my work cut out in terms of looking on street view trying to match it up with any distinguishable features.
This is the only external frame I had to go off, and so I began matching features such as the shape of the roofs on the houses in the background, the number of chimneys, the direction of traffic etc.
So, finally throughout 2 evenings painstakingly going up and down the road on street view (and almost giving up) I was adamant I had a solid lead, bringing me to this being my final conclusion.
Like anything in life that's even remotely interesting, I much prefer doing it accompanied, and so I sent out a feeler to @Wastelandr, @professor frink, @Stitch and @messlessparticle regarding what I'd discovered, followed by discussing a night we could all make to have a butcher's, which surprisingly came to fruition much sooner than anticipated.
The working week had passed, and Friday night was upon us when we'd go on to meet in a nearby boozer, after all, no epic story ever started with a salad...
A sufficient number of pints now sunk, we high-vis'd up and made our way over to the general area of the spot I'd pinned down, lifting every lid possible.
Boots to the ground son...
However, much to our disappointment it soon became apparent this was NOT matching up to the background of the clip despite my confidence as it turned out I'd overlooked the fact the neighbouring house only had one chimney...
We decided to carry on lid lifting for an hour or so, uncovering mainly BT cables and the odd drainage chamber. Now almost ready to admit defeat, @professor frink suggested we walk down the road a bit as it would make sense it would run in given direction, and by sheer luck, along the way @Stitch spotted an iron fence which looked remarkably similar to that in the 1960s clip, soon realising we'd inadvertently hit the jackpot...
We'd come prepared for almost eventuality in terms of accessing the tunnel, but luckily no persuasion was required as despite the manhole itself being padlocked, the panel next to it lifted out using just a set of manhole keys.
Some of you know how that sense of accomplishment feels with things like this, and so I needn't explain the rejoicing that was had having spent near on 2 hours wandering up and down the road in the cold and dark to finally strike lucky...
One by one, we steadily scrambled our way onto the rusty ladder, passing down bags to the man ahead.
"Have we just uncovered an extensive series of water tunnels beneath the city!?"
In short, the answer was no, and as @professor frink put it we'd been somewhat catfished.
Harbouring back to what was mentioned in the clip I'd seen, the narrator described it as a tunnel running beneath Great West Road which I assumed ran the length of the road longitudinally. However, we soon realised the tunnel only ran laterally... as in just as far as the pavement on the other side of the road kinda laterally... bugger.
As famously once said, sometimes in life things aren't always what they seem, and right there and then that phrase seemed more applicable than ever... hey ho, despite the scale being a bit of a letdown, we'd still made a sterling effort at tracking this thing down, and so it would be a shame to at least not rattle off a few snaps of our efforts.
After all, with the right lenses and lighting it's surprising what can be made to look better than it does in reality.
Contemporary ladders fitted by Thames Water.
I must admit, I spent a lot of time mentally visualising what I'd seen from the short clip and then marrying it up to what was in front of me. There's something quite surreal about standing in the same place as a maintenance worker once stood some 60 odd years ago.
Ladder shot, 2025 vs 1960s
Water mains pipe with @Wastelandr in frame, 2025 vs 1960s
Short but sweet best describes our accomplishments of that night, and in light of this not being the grand epic-sized intricate network of tunnels we were led to believe it would be, I still think it was worth a write-up.
It's got to be said that the actual process of tracking it down going off just what I'd seen in the clip in the absence of anything else online was something of a challenge in itself, and for me is what I'd define as exploring... following up on leads in the hope of cracking something new.
All in all, we were pleased to finally be able to put this place to bed, and more to the point, put ourselves to bed given how late it had gotten by the time we'd finished larking about with our DSLRs...
Until next time ~
