Queensway ventilation shafts - 7th Jul 2010 6:47pm
I've been bothered for some time by the frontispiece picture in the book "1947 Outline Plan for Birkenhead". It's an aerial view, reproduced below. It shows the Birkenhead Queensway entrance just about ready for opening, which was on 18 July 1934. The picture seems to show some tiered seating ready for guests. The significant thing which is missing from the picture is the Woodside ventilation shaft, although the Sidney St. shaft is there. The location of the Woodside shaft is shown by the red letter Y on the picture.
My question has always been, was the tunnel opened before the Woodside shaft was built? As far as I can discover, the ventilation system has not been uprated throughout its working life, which would indicate, since the system is coping with the vastly increased amount of traffic, that the system was over-engineered in the first place & would probably have coped in the early days without the Woodside shaft.
The whole of the construction was recorded in pictures by the firm of Stewart Bayle & Co. for the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee. Merseytravel, as their successors, still hold the originals. Incidentally, the originals are on a mixture of glass plates and sheet film, much of which is now in cold storage, at sizes up to 12" x 10", which accounts for the excellent detail.
My contacts at Merseytravel and Liverpool Museums have kindly given permission for me to use a few of these pictures here.
Apart from the first picture, all are dated. As you can see, even by 9th. September 1933, just 10 months before the opening, work on the Woodside shaft had only just started. The pictures from the Liverpool side are included for interest: note how quickly work on the North John St. shaft proceeded.
If anyone can discover for sure when the Woodside shaft was completed, I'd love to know. I've tried contacting the contractors, Sir Alfred Mc.Alpine, but they can't help.
My question has always been, was the tunnel opened before the Woodside shaft was built? As far as I can discover, the ventilation system has not been uprated throughout its working life, which would indicate, since the system is coping with the vastly increased amount of traffic, that the system was over-engineered in the first place & would probably have coped in the early days without the Woodside shaft.
The whole of the construction was recorded in pictures by the firm of Stewart Bayle & Co. for the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee. Merseytravel, as their successors, still hold the originals. Incidentally, the originals are on a mixture of glass plates and sheet film, much of which is now in cold storage, at sizes up to 12" x 10", which accounts for the excellent detail.
My contacts at Merseytravel and Liverpool Museums have kindly given permission for me to use a few of these pictures here.
Apart from the first picture, all are dated. As you can see, even by 9th. September 1933, just 10 months before the opening, work on the Woodside shaft had only just started. The pictures from the Liverpool side are included for interest: note how quickly work on the North John St. shaft proceeded.
If anyone can discover for sure when the Woodside shaft was completed, I'd love to know. I've tried contacting the contractors, Sir Alfred Mc.Alpine, but they can't help.