Brunel’s new tunnel vision
QUESTION What became of Brunel’s original Thames Tunnel?
The Thames Tunnel was an underwater tunnel connecting Rotherhithe and Wapping. It was designed by Marc Brunel, father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
his son was a 19-year- old assistant engineer at the time of the project’s inception but took over the works as it neared completion.
Work on the tunnel, which was 35ft wide, 20ft high and 75ft below the river, began in 1825. To excavate it, Brunel Sr invented the tunnelling shield. Miners would dig inside a protective frame, and bricklayers would build the wall as they advanced.
Poor working conditions, accidents and spiralling costs meant it took 18 years to build, not the three Marc Brunel had predicted.
The tunnel was designed to take horsedrawn carriages, but was never used for that purpose. Lack of money meant they could not afford to build the ramps to get cargo into the cargo tunnel.
It finally opened to the public on March 25, 1843. The overall cost was £634,000 — far more than budgeted.
For a time it became a major tourist attraction, attracting two million people a year who each paid a penny to pass through, but once the novelty had worn off, it became the haunt of prostitutes and tunnel thieves, who lurked under its arches and mugged passers-by.
The tunnel was bought in September 1865 by the east London Railway Company. This was a consortium of six mainline railways that aimed to use the tunnel to provide a rail link for goods and passengers between Wapping and the South London Line. The tunnel’s gener- ous headroom, designed to accommodate horse-drawn carriages, provided a sufficient loading gauge for trains.
The first steam train ran through the tunnel on December 7, 1869. In 1913, the railway was electrified and incorporated into the London Underground as the east London Line.
In 2008, the line was closed as part of the scheme to build an orbital railway for London. From the time that was opened in 2010, the Thames Tunnel became part of the London Overground.
The engine house on the Rotherhithe side once held the steam-powered pumps to extract water from the tunnel. From 1961, the building became the Brunel engine house, a museum displaying information on the building of the tunnel and other projects by the Brunels.
Steve Bingham, London SW11.
QUESTION Which was the first UK No 1 single to feature a synthesiser?
The first UK No. 1 hit featuring a synthesiser was Son Of My Father, by Chicory Tip.
The band was based in Maidstone, Kent, and featured Peter hewson, Rick Foster, Barry Mayger and Brian Shearer and had released a number of innovative, but unsuccessful, singles until this song, written by Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte and Michael holm, sent them to the top of the charts on February 19, 1972, displacing T. Rex, the biggest band at the time.
The synthesiser, however, was played by an engineer — the soon-to-be-famous producer Chris Thomas (who went on to work with Pink Floyd, Queen, Procol harum, Roxy Music, Badfinger, elton John, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Pulp and The Pretenders). Similar Giorgio Moroder co-written songs What’s Your Name and Good Grief Christina, featuring a synthesiser, followed, to lesser chart success, while a trio of other excellent singles The Future Is Past, Cigarettes, Women and Wine and I.O.U, surprisingly failed to chart. All can be found along with their B Sides and songs from the only Chicory Tip album on the CD The Singles Collection. Steve Trump, Upminster, Essex.
QUESTION Earlier this year I saw a pink butterfly. The Woodland Trust said this colour was biologically impossible to produce. Was I mistaken?
FURTheR to the earlier answer, I think the ‘pink butterfly’ the correspondent might have seen could have been the strikingly beautiful Cinnabar moth. If disturbed during the day from undergrowth, it would seem to have red/pink wings — it was named after the bright red mineral cinnabar, used by artists as a red pigment in painting.
Bob Chisholm, Canterbury, Kent.
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT. You can also fax them to 01952 780111 or you can email them to charles. legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.