Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I hope intrepid pupils are able to bypass whatever heightened security measures are in place and explore the tube. I was a lurker beneath, it was one of my favorite sanctuaries along with walks in Shelley's wood. Finding the Little Side tunnel and getting all the way from my house to emerge out of the abandoned swimming pool was a lot of fun.

I'm annoyed I didn't gain access to the reservoir mentioned in the above posts though!

Where was the entrance to the Little Side tunnel?

bakunin wrote: ↑Tue Jul 31, 2018 9:24 pm I hope intrepid pupils are able to bypass whatever heightened security measures are in place and explore the tube. I was a lurker beneath, it was one of my favorite sanctuaries along with walks in Shelley's wood. Finding the Little Side tunnel and getting all the way from my house to emerge out of the abandoned swimming pool was a lot of fun.

I'm annoyed I didn't gain access to the reservoir mentioned in the above posts though!

When I went there the ladder had been cut away and there was no way to gauge the drop. A few friends managed to get down there later on, but I missed that. At the time it seemed like more hassle than it was worth, didn't realise it was that big.

IIRC the school started putting locked doors up in the tubes before I left so it wasn't as easy to walk from Peele to Leigh Hunt. I'd be surprised it they haven't done much more since.

I explored most of the tube in my time at CH, including the Infirmary branch, and the little-side branch to the swimming pool.
Also under chapel, with a trap-door under the organist's seat, Big School (entrance under the stage, and in the back room I think), and under the HM's house.
We stumbled upon much home-brew, fag-ends etc.

The Infirmary tunnel was a climb-up to head height at the start, somewhere near Maine/Barnes, then a crawl for the majority of the length - then opened up to full height again under the Infirmary.

There was always rumour there was a branch up to Sharpenhurst - but suspect it was just pipes, no actual tunnel....

I tried to find the Big School entrance when I visited in 2014... either I couldn't remember exactly where it was or it had been shut off.

Never did the infirmary tunnel, but I think I know where the entrance was.

sejintenej wrote: ↑Mon Jul 30, 2018 9:08 pm

Cazzro wrote: ↑Fri Jan 27, 2012 9:40 pm Oh dear, I'm extremely sorry for my incorrect grammar.

What is "correct" grammar? I am in constant touch with many authors, mainly US nationals, and this is the subject of constant argument. They seem to have at least three schools of thought of which The Chicago School get a lot of column inches. Certainly spelling is not the only major difference to proper English. As has to be the case one character considers Cajun to be proper whilst Hillbilly has more adherants.

In our London office we had two weighty tomes of correct grammar (or claimed to be so). One, which I still have, was published by the Readers Digest in London. The other was the Financial Times guide for their contributors of what is acceptable (which my secretary got). Yes, we did argue which was correct.

Different FROM, please.

What was the point of the infirmary tunnel? It sounded like it was crawling only...

The original purpose of the tube AFAIK was mainly for the services - has, electric, etc rather than for keeping kids out of the rain. Very logical, as avoided ever needing to dig up the roads etc to lay phone lines, do repairs etc

We were often allowed to use The Tube when it was raining to go to Dining Hall.

There's no way it extended to Sharpenhurst!

I didn't know about all the other passageways though.

Hopefully someone can set up the occasional tour, it would be very interesting

CodFlabAndMuck wrote: ↑Sat Sep 22, 2018 9:46 pm We were often allowed to use The Tube when it was raining to go to Dining Hall.

There's no way it extended to Sharpenhurst!

I didn't know about all the other passageways though.

Hopefully someone can set up the occasional tour, it would be very interesting

Highly unlikely though that would be good.

I'm not even sure the complete tube system is now utterly asbestos free.

J.R. wrote: ↑Sat Sep 22, 2018 10:10 pm

CodFlabAndMuck wrote: ↑Sat Sep 22, 2018 9:46 pm We were often allowed to use The Tube when it was raining to go to Dining Hall.

There's no way it extended to Sharpenhurst!

I didn't know about all the other passageways though.

Hopefully someone can set up the occasional tour, it would be very interesting

Highly unlikely though that would be good.

I'm not even sure the complete tube system is now utterly asbestos free.

Good point, had forgotten about the asbestos!

On my last visit to CH, I asked if I could just pop down the tube for a quick look. NO, I was told. Why, I asked. Something to do with Health & Safety, I was told.

Arr ! The good old Elf and Insanity ploy, I thought. Covers a multitude of sins. Not really unlike the present Three Wise Monkeys, or Ostrich Head in the Fire Bucket trick.

When I was at CH, I was a vertigo guide and there was one occasion when we took (with a member of the maintenance staff) a group of engineers down the tube around the dining hall area.

In recent years, there have been tours on OB day - nothing recently due to the rebuild of the kitchens.

Tunnel running (crawling) was a lot of fun. I think we found all the accessible areas others have mentioned, plus there were a couple of storage rooms that were full of junk.
As it happened, many years later I worked at The Rockefeller University in NYC, and it also had an extensive tunnel system and a avid group of tunnel rats. The biggest surprise was that you could use it to access abandoned parts of the NYC subway system, all sorts of utility tunnels and even one that ran under the East River. For any of those planning a visit to NY, there are organized (and legitimate) tours of some of the city tunnel systems. It is amazing how they manage to build anything new, since almost every part of the city is riddled with tunnels under the surface. As a result the 'new' 2nd Ave subway will probably take ~20 years to complete, though not all of the delay is due to construction problems.

sk them how many staff and pupils developed diffuse pleural thickening, pleural plaques, pleural effusion, rounded atelectasis, malignancies such as mesothelioma or pulmonary fibrosis due to asbestos between 1903 and the present date.

The dangers occur when the asbestos is being cut, drilled or otherwise broken in some way.