Strand Underpass Strand Underpass The Strand Underpass is a one-way vehicle tunnel in central London connecting Waterloo Bridge to Kingsway near Holborn. Opened in 1964, it was built within the former Kingsway tramway subway, which closed in the 1950s. The underpass is built within part of the former Kingsway tramway subway, which was wide and allowed bi-directional flow because of the fixed rails and relatively narrow width of the trams. The new underpass was built by John Mowlem & Co and opened on 21 January 1964. It is only wide, and consequently normally one-way northbound because of the side clearances required. The
Waterloo Bridge first bridge on the site was designed in 1809–10 by John Rennie for the Strand Bridge Company and opened in 1817 as a toll bridge. The granite bridge had nine arches, each of span, separated by double Doric stone columns, and was long, including approaches– between abutments–and wide between the parapets. Before its opening it was known as the Strand Bridge. During the 1840s the bridge gained a reputation as a popular place for suicide attempts. In 1841 the American daredevil Samuel Gilbert Scott was killed while performing an act in which he hung by a rope from a scaffold