A penny banger in the Finchley Road tunnel

Do any of you remember the brook that ran from the pond, which incidentally was fed from springs that issued from the grassy hill up towards the Kings road entrance. Three pipes fed into the brook, one about twelve inches in diameter, which brought water from the storm drains to the east, the centre pipe, somewhat larger carried water from the pond and springs and then a three foot pipe that collected water from the storm drains to the west, the Finchley road side. The entire length of the brook, from the start, just below the pond, to where it went under ground at College road was fenced with metal spiked fencing about five feet high. This fencing was not removed during the war years, as was most metal fencing, why this was never taken towards the war effort is a mystery. The three foot pipe from the Finchley road area was seen as a challenge to the boys of the area. I don’t know who was the first to venture into it but it wasn’t long before we were all stooping and lighting our way until we reached the large inspection access under Finchley road. Here was a chamber about four foot square with several pipes leading into it, metal steps set into the walls and above a round manhole cover which opens, roughly in the centre of Finchley road itself. It was quite risky to pop that cover as Finchley road carried the main bus routes into the City and buses were pretty frequent, but we used to do it as a dare. We used to sit up in the Finchley road tunnel for ages awaiting some unfortunate kids to make the same trip. When we heard them making their way through the tunnel we would light up a penny banger, just a single one, that was attached to a piece of wood and float it down the tunnel whilst we sat with our finger firmly placed in our ears. That bang reverberated through the tunnel for several seconds and was shattering. You could hear the kids panicking their way out of that tunnel by their splashes and cries.