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
Westminster Bridge traffic to/from the greater West End would have to negotiate streets often as congested as London Bridge, principally the Strand/Fleet Street and New Oxford Street/Holborn. Roads on both sides of the river were also built and improved, including Charing Cross Road and around the Elephant & Castle in Southwark. By the mid–19th century the bridge was subsiding badly and expensive to maintain. The current bridge was designed by Thomas Page and opened on 24 May 1862. With a length of and a width of , it is a seven-arch, cast-iron bridge with Gothic detailing by Charles Barry (the architect of