Brunel’s Thames Tunnel Vision

Thursday 7th December 2023

By the 1820s the River Thames at Rotherhithe was so congested it had become the M25 of its day. The nearest river crossing for merchants and citizens was London Bridge but that was over two miles away as well as being busy and expensive to use.

It’s said the river was so chocablock with boats and ships, pedestrians could cross by hopping from one boat to another until reaching the other side. But obviously that wasn’t a sustainable solution to meet the growing demand for cross river movement and linking the expanding docks on each side of the river.

So plans were drawn up for the very first tunnel to be built under a river.

Initial attempts between 1805 and 1809 had failed due to the difficult ground conditions but a decade later along came Marc Brunel who had patented his tunnelling shield and in 1823 produced a plan for a tunnel between Rotherhithe and Wapping with construction beginning in 1825. However within a short time Marc fell ill due to the sewage laden water conditions giving off methane gas where work was taking place leading to his retirement and 19 year old son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, taking over.

It was a gruelling process coping with flooding and other challenges as well as a drain on finances making it the HS2 of its time. But rather than cancelling its northern leg, steps were taken to raise funds including allowing visitors to pay a shilling and climb down the shaft to observe the workmen at work on the construction with the foul smells, noise and danger thrown in for free. Homeless people were able to pay a penny and sleep in the tunnel overnight.

After 18 years of arduous construction the tunnel finally opened to the public in March 1843 and was an immediate success becoming a hugely popular way to cross the river with 50,000 visitors on its opening day and a million in the first ten weeks.

Fast forward exactly 180 years and Brunel’s tunnel, now used as a key part of the London Overground, was opened to the public to explore during a Hidden London weekend special at the end of last month and proved equally popular. Thanks to engineering work on the tracks in the Shoreditch area the busy line between Wapping and Rotherhithe which usually sees London Overground trains running every few minutes was closed to trains on 25th and 26th November.

Thanks to meticulous planning and I’d imagine no end of risk assessments and Health & Safety concerns, the Hidden London team worked with London Overground to offer a unique opportunity for the public to walk through the tunnel as they’d done 180 years ago. Guided tours left Rotherhithe every 20 minutes throughout the weekend and my good friend Ray Stenning and I had been lucky enough to secure tickets for the very first ‘departure’ at 10:00 on the Saturday.

After a brief introduction and words of welcome from London Overground staff, 20 of us were in the capable hands of Hidden London guides Aaron and Paul who did a magnificent job during the following hour taking us along the tracks through to Wapping and then back again while imparting their extensive knowledge of the history of the tunnels at strategic points along the way.

Arrangements had been made to install ‘piers’ on the tracks at both Rotherhithe and Wapping to enable visitors to access the tracks safely and begin the tour.

Although it’s one tunnel there’s a dividing wall creating two ‘bores’ which have gaps at frequent intervals.

But first we had to cross over to the northbound bore which was closely supervised to ensure no one tripped over.

In the early years of the tunnel the gaps between the ‘bores’ were filled with up to 60 stalls selling various products and services in the Capital’s first underground shopping arcade.

Despite its delays, setbacks and disasters, the Thames Tunnel became one of the sights of London, as it had during construction. Foreign governments sent experts to learn from this “eighth wonder of the world”, seen as a triumph of British engineering. At its height of popularity about two million people were paying a penny to pass through each year.

But while the tunnel had ultimately proved to be a triumph of civil engineering, in echoes of today’s HS2 experience, it was not a financial success. It had cost £454,000 to dig and another £180,000 to fit out, far in excess of initial cost estimates.

Furthermore, after the initial popularity waned the tunnel’s reputation became more sordid with prostitutes and other more unsavoury characters known as ‘tunnel thieves’ frequenting the arches and in 1865 the owners sold the tunnel to the East London Railway Company for £800,000 to allow steam-powered trains to carry passengers under the river. Trains ran north to Shoreditch including a loop to Liverpool Street and Whitechapel.

The tunnel’s disused construction shaft to the north of the river was repurposed to become Wapping station which is why even today access to and from the platforms is the most restricted on the network.

The line was electrified in 1913 and became part of the London Transport Passenger Board’s assets when established in 1933 becoming part of the Metropolitan line. In 1995 the line was closed as part of plans to provide a link to the new Jubilee line at Canada Water and the opportunity was taken to perform much needed maintenance including “shotcreting” the tunnel’s walls and roof to prevent leaks.

However this was not without controversy with architectural interests seeking and gaining Grade II listing for the tunnel at the eleventh hour resulting in a more sympathetic plan for treatment including a short section at one end being left untreated to retain the tunnel’s original appearance.

The tunnel reopened in 1998 but closed again in 2007 to permit track-laying and resignalling for the East London line extension and become part of the London Overground with main line trains once again running through the tunnel after it reopened in 2010.

It was a truly fascinating visit and although far from cheap at £75 a ticket, indeed some observed the cost was bordering on extortion, it was obvious costly preparatory work had been necessary with extensive staff numbers involved over the weekend to facilitate this unique visitor experience.

To complete the visit Ray and I also went along to the nearby Brunel Museum just north of Rotherhithe station. Located in the original shaft from where construction of the tunnel began, as well as exhibits and story boards…

… it has a viewing area at the bottom of the shaft to watch an informative video about the tunnel and proved to be a great way to end the visit.

180 years ago Brunel’s vision for the Thames Tunnel almost certainly didn’t envisage thousands of passengers travelling through it on an intensive network of frequent main line trains; which makes you wonder what the situation will be in another 180 years in the year 2203.

Thanks to those at TfL, London Overground and Hidden London who made this visit possible.

Roger French

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