The Tunnel Tales of Old London Town

About this excursion

£95 per person

We start our entertaining day meeting a knowledgeable Blue Badge Guide in Rotherhithe riverside for morning coffee. Trade from the four corners of the world came up the mighty Thames in tall ships so it was decided that the only way to get cargo and people across a river, which merchants claimed could take longer to cross the Atlantic, was by tunnel. To build the world’s first river tunnel the Victorian engineers Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel invented the tunnelling shield – an iron box divided into 36 cells each containing a worker with a shovel!

We visit the Grand Entrance Hall open after 145 years and the Engine House full of prints, watercolours, statues, peep shows and models that tell the dramatic story of flood, death and disaster to the triumphal opening of, what was considered at the time to be, the Eighth Wonder of the World.

After our two course lunch with coffee or tea we rejoin the coach and head for the Blackwall Tunnel, built using Brunel’s technology, and travel to the brilliant Museum of London Docklands to enjoy Tunnel: The Archaeology of Crossrail.

Here you will see the most complete range of archaeological objects unearthed by Crossrail, Europe’s largest infrastructure project displayed alongside the story of this great feat of engineering in a major new exhibition.

The construction of London’s newest railway, which will be known as the Elizabeth line when services begin in 2018, has given archaeologists a unique chance to explore some of the city’s most historically important sites. Since work began in 2009, the project has undertaken one of the most extensive archaeological programmes ever in the UK, with over 10,000 artefacts shining a light on almost every important period of the Capital’s history.

The wide variety of items on display will explore 8,000 years of human history, revealing the stories of Londoners ranging from Mesolithic tool makers and inhabitants of Roman Londinium to those affected by the Great Plague of 1665.

These finds were discovered in locations as diverse as suburban Abbey Wood in the south east, through Canary Wharf, across to Liverpool Street, Tottenham Court Road and ending in Westbourne Park and Acton. The finds will sit against a backdrop telling the engineering story of the largest infrastructure project currently underway in Europe, with key facts and figures presented throughout.

There is little walking on this trip – a maximum of 400 metres for the whole day.

The cost of this day will include luxury coach transport,6 your Blue Badge Guide for the day, entry to all venues shown, morning refreshments, a two course lunch with tea/coffee and, of course, treats.

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