Another Wapping Weekend

Carry on Shafting again

If you haven't got a weekend sticking your self in front of the TV or a large screen to watch the World Cup, you might fancy popping off to a Brunel Thames Tunnel Tour which are running this weekend. These innuendo filled tours covering Brunel's Wapping shaft, are fun and informative as Robert Hulse, the curator of the Brunel Museum will keep you entertained with the history of the oldest section of tunnel in the London Underground.


For the trip under the Thames between Rotherhithe and Wapping stations the tunnels are floodlit and the trains travel a bit slower than normal so you can see the tunnels in more detail.

Robert says there's a new book about the Thames Tunnel - "The Brunel's Tunnel" that's just been published and the following section from its foreword is by Michael Palin

"This great underwater crossing was a feat of engineering which the Victorians, never short on hyperbole, called the Eighth Wonder Of The World. Its continued use today as part of the East London Line is testimony to the far-sighted technical skill of Marc and Isambard Brunel. What we shouldn't forget is the grip that the Thames Tunnel had on the popular imagination at the time; a combination of joy, pleasure, wonder and sheer excitement, which is not dead and which echoes up from the river-bed to this day.

The Thames Tunnel, the first of an underground network that transformed our city's life is something of which Londoners always were, and should always remain, rightly proud."

The tours are running on the 17th, 18th, 24th, and 25th June and begin at Rotherhithe station at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm and only cost a fiver. You'll also need a valid Travelcard or Oystercard or ticket for zone 2. To book visit the Brunel Museum's website. A group of us first went a year ago, a number of visitors to this blog have been since and it's well worth a visit!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, June 15, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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