AN ARCHIVE COMPRISING BOOKS AND REPORTS, BROADSHEETS, PRINTS & DRAWINGS, COMMEMORATIVE OBJECTS AND MEDALS RELATING TO THE THAMES TUNNEL,: its building in 1825, opening in 1843 and attraction as consequence.

The Thames Tunnel, the first underwater tunnel in the world, was an unprecedented achievement. It was only made possible by Marc Isambard Brunel's invention of the tunnelling shield, one of the greatest innovations in civil engineering, the concept of which is still in use today for tunnelling in soft ground. Construction of the Thames Tunnel, which runs beneath the river between Rotherhithe and Wapping, began in 1825 but quickly ran into trouble owing to treacherous ground conditions. In 1828 work stopped for seven years, resuming in 1835. It took another six years of painfully slow progress before the bore was complete. The final breakthrough came on 12th August 1841 though it took another 18 months or so before the Wapping shaft was completed and the Tunnel could be opened to the public. This archive, comprising of Books and Reports, Broadsheets, Prints & Drawings, Commemorative Objects, a Peepshow and Medals relating to the Thames Tunnel, thus reflects in an extraordinarily immediate way both the completion and opening of such a huge venture, as well as the popularity and success it brought to the nation's capital.

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