Even without the threat of floods, digging the tunnel was hard going. The men worked in 8 hour shifts, then slept 8 hours in the darkness with no natural light. The project also suffered money troubles and halfway through the project – when they hadn’t even reached halfway – it had to be paused due to lack of funds. After eight years of petitioning and campaigning, Marc Brunel generated enough funds to restart the work, and the tunnel was finally finished in 1843.
The tunnel had been conceived as a cargo tunnel for horses and carts carrying their wares from one side to the other. However, by 1843, the area surrounding the tunnel had been sold or repurposed for other means and there was neither the space nor the funds to build the ramps required for the horses and carts. Instead, the tunnel opened for foot passengers, each paying a penny to get across the river. The novelty of doing so was so alluring that the tunnel became a bit of a tourist attraction, and within a year of opening nearly 2 million people had visited the tunnel. However, the tunnel never recouped its costs and in 1869 it was sold to the London Metropolitan Railway. Since then, tube trains have run underneath the river from Wapping to Rotherhithe and vice versa, underneath the cargo boats of the dockworkers pictured in Burgess’ painting.
Drawings from the Thames Tunnel archive show how Marc’s thinking about both the tunnel and tunnelling shield changed over time – and how he used painting and drawing to articulate that vision. This February half-term, the Brunel Museum and the Bank of England Museum have teamed up so that families can meet Marc and other members of the Brunel family in our character encounters, as well as having a go at creating a watercolour masterpiece like Marc himself. Learn more and
register for the event!