Wed 03 Dec
|London Museum Docklands
The Thames Tunnel: Eighth Wonder of the World!
Time & Location
03 Dec 2025, 17:00 – 18:44
London Museum Docklands, No 1, West India Quay, Hertsmere Rd, London E14 4AL, UK
About the event
On 3rd December Robert Hulse will give us a talk about the Thames Tunnel that passes under the Thames from Rotherhithe to Wapping.
The first steam train ran through the Thames Tunnel to Wapping on 7th December 1869. The first pedestrians had already walked through in March 1843, twenty years before the Metropolitan Line opened. 50,000 people on the first day! A million - half the population of London - in the first three months. Brunel’s Tunnel is the oldest tunnel in the oldest underground system in the world. Before the trains there were sword swallowers, fire eaters, dancing horses and tight rope walkers. And before that, an underwater shopping arcade and banquet hall. An underwater fairground! And a pioneering a system that would change the shape of London.
Our meetings are held in the Jack Petchey Room on the lower ground floor of the museum. We gather…