Thames Tunnel Trek | Hidden London Hangouts (S08E06) 

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My father’s 5x great grandfather was one of the Thames Tunnel Company directors, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel saved him from drowning in the tunnel when it breached in 1827 during construction.

No "elf & safety" in Brunel,s day.They faced unimaginable hazards in building this tunnel! Nice to the lovely Siddy on something other than her usual channel!

Hidden London Tour Guide = My IDEAL job. I'm one of those sad types that loves to sit at the front of the DLR train just so I can catch a glimpse of the tunnel walls. Was lucky enough to work for LUL engineering back in the day, so I've seen my fair share of the Tube secrets, like the Kennington Loop, The Camden Points, Westminster Government Only separate entrances etc. Such a good channel this. HOURS of interesting content.

I was lucky enough to be on one of Siddy's tours during this weekend, it was absolutely fascinating. Thank you for uploading this as a permanent record!

All of you thanks very, very much for helping to keep sane. Geoff from Sydney. 🏳‍🌈

The country who decided to go with a bridge instead of a tunnel after seeing the Thames Tunnel was Russia, the city being St Petersburg (Leningrad). My wife has watched this video as well, and she told me (she is also Russian).

No idea why this didn’t show up in my subscriptions. Such is RU-vid.

Probably the most fascinating feature I've watched in many years. It felt like I was right there with our four lovely Hangout friends. Great photography, great conversation, great company. Proper cool stuff! Thank you so much. ❤

Notice on the middle of the trackage, the middle brackets of the third rail when the East London Line was an Underground line was removed when it was upgraded to an Overground line.

They had a dinner party in this tunnel when it opened to celebrate after a leak was fixed and a great marketing trick. I am an engineer and Brunel is my favourite famous engineer!... and as I wrote this Siddy told us all about this (her research is impeccible 😅)

I am quite a newish viewer/fan of your channel i was born in Wood Green in the 1950’s so was a frequent traveler with my Mum on the tube being a young boy going on the tube was always a great experience and adventure I always enjoyed the sounds and smells of travelling on the trains I don’t think I could replicate that experience now but you as a team bring some of my memories back and I thank you x❤

You can still see an intact vertical flood gate in a shaft 1 in Rotherhithe Tunnel. It was installed in 1939 because the Thames Tunnel line passes under the entrance ramp. Don't go when it's busy as the fumes are bad.

Wow, I would love to walk down that tunnel. For a long time in the mid-1980s I used to work right next to Rotherhithe station (and briefly lived there) and used the station daily. It fascinated me that you could see water at the bottom of the tunnel - it used to leak like a sieve. I love the fact that it was SO old. I also loved the area in the 1980s when it was quite derelict and the first warehouses were being converted to flats. Watching this, it is amazing how much, and how little, it has changed. I really should visit the Brunel Museum.

Far and away the best episode yet. I’m still thinking of Grundons Cockles and Winkles stall. 😂😂

You’ve got to have a bottle sump flush. 🤣

I'm from Rotherhithe and sadly I didn't know anything about this tour. I would have loved to have walked through Brunel's tunnel. There is a museum above the south caisson which is well worth a visit.

Me like Siddy very much! :D

I just saw the Lower Section of the Hi Vis Alex was wearing "Please Keep Your Distance" and I howled with laughter! (I understand it was probably issued during the Pandemic)

Trivia: the orange colour band on the platform friezes is East London line orange, not Overground orange

When you think of what those navvies had to go through and the engineering feat required, its breathtaking and revolutionary, one of the best well done 👏👏👏 xxx

This is a must watch if you like history of London this week #hiddenlondonhangout episode the team have surpassed themselfs when you think they done it all they bring this to us. Well done and Thank you so much to the Fab4 and all involved in making this happen

It was a truly fantastic opportunity to walk through the tunnel! I even mananged to say hi to Siddy on the Saturday. The whole thing made me think... It's often said to be 1843, but it's older as was mentioned at one point. Design started in 1823, build 1825. That was before the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened! Not only is this old, but the oldest parts of the tunnel are as old as anything else on the railway system - although of course it wasn't built as a railway, yet Marc Brunel's vision was big enough that modern trains fit through the tunnel as built, it didn't need to be enlarged. Truly extraordinary. If I'm passing I stand on platform 1 at Wapping for a while and look at the trains coming through, and marvel at its 200 years. We should thank Stephen Dorell for listing it so it's still possible to imagine its original form (although I imagine Denis Tunnicliffe had a different reaction that Friday in 1995). And it would have been so easy to say 'no' to opening to the public, but instead this extraordinry event was staged.

This was really, really fascinating. Thank you so much for presenting this tour! This technology is still used today for tunnel building albeit in a much safer and modern form with some innovations gained while building the famous 4.75-mile Hoosac Tunnel located in Western Massachusetts. This newer tunnel gave us tunnel boring machines, even though the first one was underpowered and got stuck the principles were there and a newer machine was built much later, light-sighting using towers, prisms, lanterns, and mirrors to reflect light down shafts to guide the workers, and finally dynamite and blasting patterns with thanks to Dr. Mowbray. Today, we've replaced the lanterns, mirrors, and prisms with lasers, GPS systems, and satellite systems, but that still works in the same principle but far more accurate than in the 1850s and 60s.

RU-vid videos don't come much better than this...

This was epic to see! Would had been funny to see one of the animals appear with a pop-up shop! LOL Thank you for showing us the Thames Tunnel Hidden London.

Wow! What an epic adventure! I wanted to go on the tour, but couldn't make it! Thank you to all the people involved in making this tour happen! Let's hope there is an opportunity to do this again. Thank you for filming this for us all to see!

More awe than talking. That's a first, but completely understandable. What an adventure. I love that people were able to see it first hand. And great use of drawings, as well. The side-by-side really gave you a sense of the grandeur, even after the horrors that happened during the tunnelling process. The juxtaposition is mindblowing.

Brilliant. I got excited enough when I went to see the shaft at the Museum some years back.

I like the name, Christopher Kingdom Brunel! As it happens, the new loco on my layout is "Ismbard Kingdom Brunel"! Maybe Chris could come to Fife, and officially name it!

I remember in 1995, plans to strengthen the tunnel by shortcreting (and building Canada Water Station as an interchange for the Jubilee Line) meant the tunnel (and the whole line) was planned to close for six months. As English Heritage got a preservation order placed on the tunnel on the day of closure, it remained closed for 3 years!! It closed again for another 3 years in 2007 for conversion to London Overground, but as far as I know there are no plans to close it again!!

Hurrah! Good to see the full team will be out in force for this one! Merry Christmas to you all!

Fantastic episode. You've hit the jackpot with this one guys. Always wanted a guided tour of this tunnel. Shadwell, one stop up from Wapping used to be my local station in the 80s/90s. You could hear the sound of running ground water at the south end of the platform between trains. Had a very tranquil and calming effect! I certainly remember the uproar about plastering the tunnel with concrete in the mid 90s.

I am so sorry to have missed this opportunity but a huge thanks to everyone for this early Christmas present. So very very interesting. If the tour happens again - I will be there

What an incredible opportunity, thank you for making this video for those of us who couldn’t make the tour. As always thank the 4 of you for wonderful content, I have followed every episode since the beginning and can honestly say you give me something to look forward to every week.

Now this is something different! My Nan lived at Rotherhithe and visiting the tube station in the 1980's was quite a gloomy experience what with water cascading down the walls and the worrying sight of crumbling brickwork. And then a lovely A Stock train would emerge from the tunnel from Surrey Docks and all was well. It's much changed now for the better and I'm very much looking forward to what you discover during your walk.

To use your vernacular -- that was brilliant. One of the best yet. Keep on coming the videos

Thank you so much team for a amazing episode through the best tunnel in the world, i must come and see this when next up in London

Wow what a great experience.would love to visit the tunnel and experience such history. Thank you for taking us through it. 👍

Super video.

Brilliant video...well done all.... and compliments of the season.

Extra fascinating episode tonight guys! Well done and thanks to everyone for making it possible 🤗👏

52:20 the wooden battens protecting the positive rail will also be found at Stations such as Arnos Grove, Loughton and White City where there is a platform edge alongside.

Another great hangout. Thanks guys. Wishing you all the seasons greetings

Love this episode you guys are so lucky to be involved 😮

What a cracking place to visit - thanks for sharing it with us! Such an amazing feat of engineering for a near 200yo structure.

Love this episode ... i do have a slight connection with IKB, i was born 100yrs later to the day that he died.....

Fantastic video guys. Amazing to see inside the Thames Tunnel.

That was a fantastic episode. So great to see you do an overground station. Thank you. Really impressed and so much history.

A fantastic episode again. Thank you guys, this one was amazing!

Thank you for this fascinating episode … a true hidden gem! You all looked like you really enjoyed making this episode !

(Seems nostalgic for me, so nice episode!)

Happy to have the four of you back. Nice tour of a historically interesting place in London. Happy Christmas and a happy new year! Best regards from Eindhoven, NL

Thanks a million for this tour! I love this tunnel, I travel through it few times a week on my way to central London as I live in SE23.

I did the walk-through tour a few years ago and it is indeed an amazing experience that anybody who has the opportunity to do should do so. The intricacies and details on the tunnel is awesome, and the fact that it's still there and in daily use almost 200 years on is testament to the engineering that they did back then - and all on paper and pencil too, no computers or even a desktop calculator to help! It's also quite fortunate that the bores were the right size for trains - not just the height for the steam engine chimneys, but also the width being appropriate too.

Just back from Xmas shopping and missed this NOW I can watch MERRY XMAS GUYS ❤️❤️

wow weeee,, great job guys,, what a Tunnel.. just Amazing 🙂

Amazing

Yeah I’m all for Father Thames😊

Brilliant much appreciated

Wow! That was fantastic! Thanks for that tour. My memories of Wapping station go back to the early sixties, when it was Q stock! And I have a recording I made in the mid sixties of the lift man talking, the lift descending, and two trains of Q stock arriving and departing! It's on sound cloud

This is a really great episode - well done, team!

As always a great show full of the wonderful history of London. Have a great Christmas guys

amazing

Marvellous to see inside,and all of the Fab Four out and about again Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all cheers.

What a fantastic opportunity to walk this! Watching this down under in Australia, thinking about the new Sydney Metro tunnels, including under the harbour. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Cheers from Jim

OMG…. Amazing

Must have missed this one

Cool episode … thanks so much for sharing. I actually can’t remember ever using it, but I’m sure I’ve been to most station on the Underground … over 20 years, 80’s-00’s

Shame I missed this tour. Didn't know it was happening..

I loved walking though the Greenwich tunnel, I always thought that was the first tunnel under the river.

Happy Christmas 🎉

I am subscribed to this excellent channel, and I am supposed to be notified when episodes drop. This didn't happen this week. Maybe YT needs to be prodded by HLH and TfL?

What an amazing tour this must have been! Did the tours do both ways as well or just from Rotherhithe to Wapping? (or the other way round?) How long does it take to walk from one station to another? It is fascinating!

Were the public tours this time planned totally from scratch or was anything re-used from the tours in 2014 (one of which I am pleased to have been on)?

33:00 Sacrilegious to even think this, but we're most likely to be with you here, Siddy, even if it means that you had to be absent from our screens for a while. Get in touch with that american professional association for instance. I'm sure that they'd be overwhelmed to be asked to co-host the essential bicentennial bash. And now I've had five minutes to think about it some more, how about getting a couple of manpowered trolleys and offer rides for a fee? As for period dress and banquet reprise, perhaps bring a brolly.

How did the floodgates stop water flowing around the rails ?

thats weird how you have a place in london next to the river call wapping in hobart tasmania there was a place called wapping as well near the river in the city of hobart

But where do we go from here? Now that we've seen the first of all tunnels, constructed with the first of all tunnel boring machines (or a precursor of those) 🤯

I been to London transport museum

Where, pray tell, is the memorial plaque to those who lost their lives in the construction? Not then, not surprising perhaps but the rash of modern ones explaining what you're seeing or giving us a bit of the history, even lauding the concreting basically are shamefacedly silent on the matter. Not one even mentions the large loss of life, let alone lists the poor fellas' names.

Did they tunnel from both banks? & how did they calculate the river bed to judge the incline & depth to tunnel beneath the river?

Why does Laura stand with her feet crossed? Just wondering...

16:10 "OutSTANDING, Merry CHRIStmas, many thanks. See me." signed A. Pedant, English Schoolmaster sans pareil. 16:46 Oh Heaven forfend, you've only gawn n done it again. Somewhat unSATisfactory. Hmm.

Great subject matter, badly presented.

I had the great (mis)fortune of working on the ELL Project Joint Venture to convert the old LU infrastructure to LO. Suffice to say, water was not our friend on that job!