Blackwall Tunnel from immigrants; the tunnel lining was manufactured in Glasgow, while the manual labour came from provincial England, particularly Yorkshire. The tunnel was officially opened by the Prince of Wales on 22 May 1897. The total cost of the tunnel was £1.4 M and 800 men were employed in its construction, during which seven deaths were recorded. The southern entrance gateway to the tunnel, also known as Southern Tunnel House, was designed by LCC architect Thomas Blashill and was built just before the tunnel was completed. It comprises two floors with an attic. Today the western bore is only used for
2008 Channel Tunnel fire tunnel at Folkestone at 00:08 BST and a limited service provided with trains travelling in turn in alternating directions in the one tunnel. By the end of September, two thirds of the north tunnel had reopened. Full service resumed in February 2009 after repairs costing €60 million. This fire was the third to close the tunnel since it opened in 1994, the first being the 1996 Channel Tunnel fire and, in August 2006, the tunnel was closed for several hours after fire broke out on a truck loaded onto a HGV Shuttle. The fire was reported on 11 September 2008,