Does anyone else remember the Clerkenwell House of Detenttion when it was open to the public? I think it closed 20+ years ago. I'm pretty sure I remember being told during the tour that some 9f the tunnels we were walking through had been sewers at some point. Not sure if it was true though ...
I went down there in 2010 (a fair bit after it had closed to the public). I don't recall anyone mentioning sewers, but the southern passage (pics in link) does have curved walls much like a sewer. It was even used in one of the Sherlock Holmes films to represent a sewer. But I don't think it could have been. For one thing, it's at the same level as the prison cells and even the Victorians wouldn't have locked men up right next to flowing sewage. https://londonist.com/2010/03/in_pictures_catacombs_of_the_clerke
How different are London's sewers - or were London's sewers in, say, 1948 - from Viennese sewers as depicted in "The third man"? Perhaps Graham Greene was making it all up that a neatly-dressed portly man without any special equipment could use the sewers of Vienna to get around the city, conducting business in its different parts. I know the story of a sewage worker who found a way into the vaults of the Bank of England, but was there really ever any scope for people - criminals or otherwise - to move around London underground undetected using the sewer network?
The consensus seems to be that most of The Third Man's sewer scenes were shot in the studio in London, but at least one sequence was on location; scroll down to photo 129a here
Fascinating questions, Martin. I can't say I know much about the Viennese sewers, and I haven't seen the film in ages, so it's a bit tricky to answer. Many cities have separate drains for rainwater and household 'brown' water. If Vienna has the separate system, then it'd be much easier for someone in fine clothes to navigate around than in London, where he'd quickly get filthy. Getting into the sewers in London does require special equipment, though nothing too fancy... just a tool for lifting the manhole cover. Urban explorers have ventured in without permission on numerous occasions (you can find reports all over the web) but it is, of course, a highly dangerous thing to do.
Does anyone else remember the Clerkenwell House of Detenttion when it was open to the public? I think it closed 20+ years ago. I'm pretty sure I remember being told during the tour that some 9f the tunnels we were walking through had been sewers at some point. Not sure if it was true though ...
I went down there in 2010 (a fair bit after it had closed to the public). I don't recall anyone mentioning sewers, but the southern passage (pics in link) does have curved walls much like a sewer. It was even used in one of the Sherlock Holmes films to represent a sewer. But I don't think it could have been. For one thing, it's at the same level as the prison cells and even the Victorians wouldn't have locked men up right next to flowing sewage. https://londonist.com/2010/03/in_pictures_catacombs_of_the_clerke
They had a 10K charity bike ride in the Super Sewer, from Battersea and Blackfriars then back again, last year. Would love to have witnessed that...
Ha... I missed that. Now that would have been fun. They did something similar in the Water Ring Main a couple of decades ago.
How different are London's sewers - or were London's sewers in, say, 1948 - from Viennese sewers as depicted in "The third man"? Perhaps Graham Greene was making it all up that a neatly-dressed portly man without any special equipment could use the sewers of Vienna to get around the city, conducting business in its different parts. I know the story of a sewage worker who found a way into the vaults of the Bank of England, but was there really ever any scope for people - criminals or otherwise - to move around London underground undetected using the sewer network?
The consensus seems to be that most of The Third Man's sewer scenes were shot in the studio in London, but at least one sequence was on location; scroll down to photo 129a here
http://axion.physics.ubc.ca/thirdman/thirdman.html
Fascinating questions, Martin. I can't say I know much about the Viennese sewers, and I haven't seen the film in ages, so it's a bit tricky to answer. Many cities have separate drains for rainwater and household 'brown' water. If Vienna has the separate system, then it'd be much easier for someone in fine clothes to navigate around than in London, where he'd quickly get filthy. Getting into the sewers in London does require special equipment, though nothing too fancy... just a tool for lifting the manhole cover. Urban explorers have ventured in without permission on numerous occasions (you can find reports all over the web) but it is, of course, a highly dangerous thing to do.