Fictions from the underground

Abstract

This paper discusses an unrealized urban plan from the 1960s that proposed to build a network of tunnel motorways and monorails underneath central London. By reframing this plan as a work of fiction, I want to underscore how literary geography perpetuates a limited tradition that merely focuses on fiction produced in or about the city, and not literature produced by or for the city. In the process of re-reading and, to an extent, reclaiming these plans from the National Archives, I argue that these abandoned visions provide an interesting text for literary geographers to access a genre of literature that bisects the built environment and fiction. The scope for this tactic is potentially vast, but a renewed look at unbuilt, unrealized or abandoned architectural texts and similar unconventional forms, would allow for literary scholars to perform a greater, more active role than before: from connecting their analysis directly to the built environment and the contemporary moment in urban space, to discovering new unbuilt works that disrupt established cultural narratives.

Key words:

• urban planning
• literary geography
• London
• literature
• archives
• London Underground

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Tom White, James Machin and Nora Plesske for their comments and assistance during the writing of this paper. Thanks are also due to motorway guru, Chris Marshall, who was the first to excavate the Underways from the National Archives.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthew Harle

Matthew Harle works for the British Film Institute and is completing a PhD in the Department of English & Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London.