London Curiosities by John Wade

Author:John Wade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2017-04-04T04:00:00+00:00

The Thames Tunnel stretched from Rotherhithe on the south bank of the river Thames to Wapping, on the north side. It was the brainchild of Marc Brunel, father of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who joined his father at the age of twenty a year after digging began. Work started in 1825 and didn’t finish until 1843.

Brunel first built a huge shaft, 50 feet in diameter, 150 feet back from the south bank of the river. The shaft was built like a tower above ground in the form of a circular 3-foot wide brick wall, 42 feet high, on top of a sharpened steel rim. It weighed about 1,000 tons, and once built, the whole thing was allowed to sink into the ground under its own weight. Inside, men at the base worked to excavate the earth that built up as the tower sunk, whilst a steam engine at the top pumped out water that filled the bottom. Once it had sunk to the required depth, miners at the base began digging through the thick sludge, out and under the river.

With setbacks that included major leaks and floods that claimed lives, financial problems and a period when work was forced to stop for seven years, it took eighteen years to complete, when it was proclaimed the Eighth Wonder of the World.

The remains of the shaft’s walls now form the circular enclosure around the gardens, while the strange building nearby was originally the boiler house that drove the steam pumps used in the excavation. The building now houses the Brunel Museum, dedicated to telling the story of how the tunnel was built.

The Thames Tunnel was originally envisaged for use by horsedrawn vehicles, but lack of finances prevented the building of spiral ramps in the shafts that would have been needed for the purpose. It was, however, used by pedestrians until 1865, when it was sold to a railway company. The tunnel remains today, used by the London Overground railway. Although there is no longer public access to the tunnel itself, it is possible to access the shaft from within the Brunel Museum – and to sit on top of it in the gardens that its rim encloses.

The circular wall and fence that today encloses a small garden was once the top of that shaft that led to the tunnel.

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