The Thames Tunnel Company was formed in 1824. It was the first tunnel to be completed under the River Thames, it connects Rotherhithe and Wapping. The project was immensely difficult and hazardous. On its completion, Marc Brunel was knighted in recognition of his achievement.
On 25th March 1843, the tunnel was opened to foot traffic, with spiral staircases at each end providing access. Lack of funds had prevented the original plan of allowing horse-drawn transport, reaching the tunnel via spiral access ramps in 61m diameter shafts. However, the tunnel proved popular. On opening day 50,000 people walked through it, and one million people (about half the population of London in 1843) visited during the first 10 weeks, all paying a penny each. Shops were set up in the cross arches.
In September 1865, the Thames Tunnel was sold to the East London Railway Company for £200,000. Track was laid and the first steam train ran through it on 7th December 1869. The line was electrified, and on 31st March 1913 the Metropolitan Railway began a service on the East London Line. The line was incorporated into the London Underground system on 29th January 1914 and goods trains used the tunnel into the 1960s. In December 2007, the tunnel was closed for refurbishment. In March 2010, it re-opened as part of the London Overground network.
Date
1823-1862
Scope and ContentComprises mainly printed material: Brunel's proposals for the tunnel, ground plans and maps depicting site and progress made, publicity booklets (numerous editions) explaining the construction techniques, various reports, notices and lithographs; also manuscript material: sections, line drawings (some with wash) of borings taken and progress made.
Brunel was born on the 25 April 1769 at Hacqueville, Normandy. After six years in the French navy, Brunel returned to France, which was then in the midst of revolution. Within a few months his royalist sympathies compelled him to leave. He fled to the United States and sailed for New York on 7 July 1793, where he held the post of chief engineer of New York City at the age of 27. He built many buildings, improved the defences of the channel between Staten Island and Long Island, and constructed an arsenal and a cannon foundry. A design of his won the competition for the new Capitol to be built in Washington, D.C., but another design was used because of economic considerations.
Brunel perfected a method for making ships’ blocks (pulleys) by mechanical means rather than by hand, and he sailed to England in 1799 to lay his plans before the British government. His plans were accepted, and he was placed in charge of installing his machines at Portsmouth dockyard. When completed, the system of 43 machines—run by 10 men—produced more blocks than 100 men could by hand, and the quality of these blocks was higher and more consistent. Production was much higher. The Portsmouth installation was one of the earliest examples of completely mechanized production. Having arrived in Britain he married Sophia Kingdom on 1 November 1799. They had two daughters, Sophia and Emma, followed on 9 April 1806 by a son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
A prolific inventor, Brunel designed machines for sawing and bending timber, making boots, knitting stockings, and printing. His sawmills at Battersea (now in Wandsworth), London, were nearly destroyed by fire in 1814, which, combined with financial mismanagement by his partners, drove his enterprise into bankruptcy. After the government refused the output of his army-boot factory when the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, Brunel was imprisoned in 1821 for indebtedness. After several months, his friends obtained from the government a grant of £5,000 for his release.
Brunel also practiced as a civil engineer. His designs included the Île de Bourbon suspension bridge and the first floating landing piers at Liverpool. In 1818 he patented the tunneling shield, a device that made it possible to tunnel safely through waterbearing strata. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1814.
In 1825 operations began for building the Brunel-designed tunnel under the River Thames between Rotherhithe and Wapping (in London). This scheme, which had no precedent, was completed in 1842, after great physical and financial difficulties and a seven-year hiatus in construction brought about by lack of funds. The tunnel opened to traffic in 1843. Brunel had been knighted in 1841 for his engineering feat. His son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was also a noted engineer; he designed the first transatlantic steamer.
Conditions governing accessOpen Access
Conditions governing ReproductionCopies may be supplied in accordance with current copyright legislation and Science Museum Group terms and conditions
