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Brunel Tunnel Tours

Sometimes, when you’re stuck on a sweltering tube train, jammed under someone’s armpit, and trying desperately to hold your breath for the entire length of the central line, its difficult to be grateful for the huge feat of engineering you’re experiencing. In 1847 Isambard Kingdom Brunel dug a twin bore tunnel under the river in Rotherhithe; The first time this had ever been done.

It was a triumph of engineering that would lay the foundation for every underground network that exists in the world today.

163 years later, the Rotherhithe tunnel is to go back into service as part of the new East London line, so before that, there was time for one last hoorah! The Greater London Authority tasked us with creating a programme of tunnel tours over two days, allowing members of the public a once-in-a-lifetime tour of what was once considered The Eighth Wonder of the World.

With two weeks to produce the event, we pulled out all the stops to put together a programme of activity, the main attraction being a guided walk from Rotherhithe to Wapping and back, through the first ever tunnel to be constructed under water – this historic tunnel passes just 14ft beneath The Thames.

In the nearby Brunel Museum, we re-created Brunel’s “Victorian Fancy Fayre” Victorian Strong Men, aerialists, and Victorian strollers filled the museum’s courtyard, for an evening of entertainments that harked back to Brunel’s days as a young engineer.

“Shining Wit are in an absolute class of their own - no other agency comes close to this quality and service” Mark Prescott, Head of Cultural Campaings GLA.