In medieval Europe, river crossings were prized real estate. The original London Bridge was a fine example, with more than 90 shops, houses and chapels crammed along its 275-metre span. Even today, in Florence, you can stroll across the Ponte Vecchio and be tempted by the jewellers that line the Arno. Yet one of London’s busiest thoroughfares on the Thames is not a bridge at all, but a shopping arcade twenty metres below the river. The Thames Tunnel, once hailed as the Eighth Wonder of the World, opened in 1843. It was the first underwater passenger tunnel and drew over a million visitors in its opening 10 weeks, making it the world’s most popular attraction at the time. No self-respecting visitor to London left without descending into its depths or buying a trinket marked A Present from the Thames Tunnel.
So how did London acquire its underwater Victorian mall? For centuries, crossing the Thames was a challenge: until the 1700s London Bridge was the only fixed crossing, and by the early 1800s only four more had been added. Meanwhile, pressure grew to link the eastern docklands on either bank. An early attempt using Cornish miners failed: their skill with hard rock was useless against the quicksands beneath the river. Enter Marc Brunel, an ingenious French engineer who had recently tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade the Czar of Russia to build a tunnel under the Neva. In London he drew up plans for a 400-metre tunnel from Rotherhithe to Wapping.
