Greenwich Foot Tunnel

[carlislemike]

Friday 31/7/2020! Has the lift service at the North end of the tunnel been restored yet or is it part of the great Greenwich plan to jeep people socially distanced?

[Jdsk]

Current status:
https://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/200154/council_and_elections/2197/coronavirus_covid-19/7

Updated on Tuesday 28 July:
Repairs to the north lift at Greenwich Foot Tunnel are now complete and the lift is working.

Jonathan

[carlislemike]

Thank you.

[Mick F]

Saw the title of this thread, and thought: What's a Greenwich Foot? .......... and why does it need a tunnel?

They used to be called Pedestrian Tunnels.
Perhaps the word pedestrian is falling out of favour in this day and age.

[thirdcrank]

I see there's also a Woolwich foot tunnel and both date from the early 20C ie over a century old. I see the idea of building them is credited to a working-class politician, Will Crooks. Assuming he played a part in the naming, perhaps he thought plain English was best.

[carlislemike]

Pedestrian replacement by Foot as people find it tough spelling

[thirdcrank]

A deplorable lacuna in the instruction of orthography.

=========================================================================================

Or is it?

I found the following in the Online Etymology Dictionary. I don't know anything about its reliability.

pedestrian (adj.)
1716, "prosaic, dull" (of writing), from Latin pedester (genitive pedestris) "plain, not versified, prosaic," literally "on foot" (sense contrasted with equester "on horseback"), from pedes "one who goes on foot," from pes (genitive pedis) "foot," from PIE root *ped- "foot." Meaning "going on foot" is attested by 1791 in English (it also was a sense of Latin pedester). Earlier adjective pedestrial (1610s) meant "of or pertaining to the foot."
propsal to rename them
pedestrian (n.)

1793, "a walker, one who walks or journeys on foot," from pedestrian (adj.). In early use especially "one who walks or races on foot for a wager; a professional walker; one who has made a notable record for speed or endurance." In 20c. it came to mean especially "person walking on a road or pavement" as opposed to person driving or riding in a motor vehicle.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/pedestrian

That suggests that the metaphoric use predates the literal. The second entry seems to confirm my suspicion that pedestrian in the road traffic sense is a fairly recent usage. Not so long ago, parliamentary draftsmen who write legislation were still referring to "passengers on foot" but the meaning of passengers has changed.

If sign writers charge by the character, FOOT TUNNEL would be a lot cheaper than TUNNEL FOR PASSENGERS ON FOOT and less vulnerable to changes of usage.

Here in Leeds, where we claim they were invented, we have pedestrian precincts. In York, they have "foot streets" and a lot more history.

My trump card here is that the word footpath has a long pedigree. I fancy a campaign for a change of nomenclature to public pedestrian thoroughfare might attract little support, even among pedants

[mercalia]

I bet it was the place to be yesterday when it was 36C on the ground in London?

[thirdcrank]

I can't speak about meteorological conditions in London but It's occurred to me that footbridge is a commonly used expression which carries no implication of poor literacy skills.

[Mick F]

Wonderful post there guys!
Especially TC of course.

My only experience of regular use of a tunnel, was the Clyde Tunnel whilst commuting from Ibrox to Scotstoun regularly by bike and sometimes by car.
The Clyde tunnel has pedestrian and cycle tunnels too.
Note the word "pedestrian".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Tunnel

[al_yrpal]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Tunnel

Brunel was at it early on with the first tunnel under a navigable river... and the first tunneling sheild was used on it. I have walked through the Greenwich tunnel when visiting the museum and observatory at Greenwich. Strange that well known seasoned matelot Mick has never been through it?

Al

[thirdcrank]

... seasoned matelot ...

Is that like an old salt?

[Mick F]

Greenwich?

Been there once when Mrs Mick F and me stayed in London for a weekend.
Went out to the observatory to see Harrison's clocks.

The Naval College is there of course, but that was for the officers .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Nav ... _Greenwich

[colin54]

Beware of footpads in the tunnel ,
they specialise in pedestrian victims !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footpad