Cities beneath

Summary

A survey of the world beneath us includes: the geology, the natural base of our built up cities, many of which are fed by a gaggle of tributaries flowing into the main city river; the man-made structures of cables, pipes, ducts, subways, along with examples of tube networks, underground stations as well as lost routes and ghost stations, all of which contribute to the dark continent beneath our pavements.

The underground scene is discussed with special emphasis on London as a case study, but taking into account the different and even contradictory evolution of capital cities the world over.

A number of capital cities will be studied in the context of the correspondence of the seen world—at street level and above—and the world concealed from public gaze. The essential theme that our cities have been planned by de-facto Flat Earthers for far too long runs through the survey. The city is at least a three dimensional complex with perhaps a fourth dimension in archaelogical historical time.

Underground space is an invaluable asset, an asset that has never been properly studied or surveyed. The capital assets below the surface have never been evaluated. No attempt has yet been made to introduce the principles of vertical as well as horizontal planning into our cities. The The public utilities operate in a framework of their own, related only tangentially to the functions of local and national governments. Imaginative schemes such as the subterranean motorway—as the ‘alternative’ to the radial ring route—have failed to make the impact they might well have made had serious efforts been made to coordinate the views of local government with those of the statutory authorities. Without effective 3D planning our cities will be unable to grow organically—it is still not too late to bring back the third dimension into our city development.