Northern Portal – Snow Hill tunnel (London)

 railway, tunnel

 Upload a photo

Snow Hill Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the northern edge of the City of London between City Thameslink and Farringdon stations. The tunnel runs beneath the Smithfield meat market and was constructed using the cut and cover method immediately prior to the building of the market. The tunnel opened on 1 January 1866.

Snow Hill tunnel was constructed by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR) to connect its tracks from the Ludgate Viaduct to those of the recently opened Metropolitan Railway's Widened Lines south of Farringdon station. To the north-west, the Widened Lines in turn connected to the tracks of the Great Northern Railway at King's Cross and the Midland Railway at St Pancras via tunnels running beneath the two main line termini. Snow Hill tunnel thus provided the crucial link in the only north-south railway route through central London, enabling cross London passenger and goods services to be run by a number of main line railway companies.

When first opened the tunnel had an additional eastwards connection to the Metropolitan Railway's tracks, enabling trains from the south to also serve Aldersgate Street (now Barbican) and Moorgate Street (now Moorgate) stations. The eastward curve also connected to a goods station beneath Smithfield market. The curve and the goods station are no longer in use.

A station, also named Snow Hill, was opened in the tunnel in 1874 providing an interchange with the LC&DR's adjacent terminus at Holborn Viaduct station. Snow Hill station closed in 1916 although the tunnel remained in use for goods traffic until the end of the 1960s. Tracks were lifted in 1971 and the tunnel was abandoned for fifteen years until works began in 1986 to bring the north-south route back into operation as part of the Thameslink route. New tracks were laid and services reopened in 1989.

As part of the works for the new link, Holborn Viaduct station and the Ludgate Viaduct were demolished and the bridge that had carried the tracks north across Ludgate Hill road from Blackfriars station was removed and replaced with a new steeply-inclined tunnel connection to the Snow Hill tunnel. To provide clearance for the new tunnel, the road level at the western end of Ludgate Hill and in the adjacent junction of Ludgate Circus were raised several feet so that the tunnel could pass below.