"The tunnel carries electricity, and itself is a result of the huge power failure that plunged most of South London into darkness in August 2003. A later review recommended that Network Rail should improve the security of its own supplies in south London, and the result is a tunnel running from the National Grid disconnector at New Cross National Grid Substation to the Rotherhithe Switching Station."
"Power tunnels need to be kept cool, so here at the junction of Surrey Canal Road and Ilderton Road is a building containing the top of one of the ventilation shafts that lead down to the power tunnel. Surrey Canal Road sits on the filled-in route of the Grand Surrey Canal, and right next to the pocket park used to be a bridge over the canal. At some point between 1895 and 1915, a group of four houses were built where the park is today."
"According to Network Rail, it had earned the nickname of the "grassy knoll" by the time they turned up to dig their tunnel. Construction started in 2017, with the shaft visible in Google Earth, and they moved out in 2020, with the new headhouse building next to the railway and the new pocket park landscaped. It has been planted with 37 trees, while a new hedge runs along the road-facing side to provide a bit of shelter, and climbers scale the fencing."
The corner park occupies a plot that previously held four houses built between 1895 and 1915, and later sat as empty land after buildings and a nearby canal bridge were filled in during the 1970s. A power tunnel running from the National Grid disconnector at New Cross to Rotherhithe Switching Station was constructed after the August 2003 South London blackout to improve supply security. A ventilation shaft headhouse at Surrey Canal Road and Ilderton Road serves the tunnel and helped shape the new pocket park. The site was landscaped with 37 trees, a roadside hedge, climbers, and formally opened as Pat Hickson Gardens in October 2021.
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