Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 2
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Chapter XV: The Thames Tunnel, Ratcliff Highway, and Wapping.
Chapter XV: The Thames Tunnel, Ratcliff Highway, and Wapping.
Sub-river tunnels are not unfrequent in the coalmining districts of the north of England. The beds of both the Tyne and the Wear are pierced in this manner; while at Whitehaven, and at the Botallack mines in Cornwall, the bed of the ocean has been penetrated for long distances, the tunnel at the former place extending upwards of a mile beneath the sea. At the close of the last century a North-country engineer proposed a sub-aqueous passage to connect North and South Shields, but the scheme was never carried out. The same gentleman then proposed the tunnel from Gravesend to Tilbury, mentioned by us in the preceding chapter; but it was soon abandoned as impracticable, as was also a Cornish miner's proposal to connect with . | |
In , however, a bolder, more reckless, and far-seeing mind took up the project, and Mr. Brunel (backed by the Duke of Wellington and the eminent Dr. Wollaston) seriously submitted a plan of a tunnel to the public, and so practical a man soon obtained listeners. With his usual imaginative sagacity he had gone to Nature, and there found allies. The hard cylindrical shell of the soft-footed teredo , as Linnaeus calls it), which eats its way, in small tubular tunnels, even through the tough timbers of men-of-war, had suggested to the great engineer a shield under which his workmen could shelter. | |
The communication between the Surrey shore and the side was most important, as the wharves for the coasting trade of England lay chiefly on the Surrey bank, and traffic had to be conveyed by carts to the Tower-side docks. In , of wagons and carts that passed over southwards, of the and of the were found to turn down . It was also ascertained that the watermen of the neighbourhood took over the Thames no less than passengers daily. | |
In a company was formed to construct a tunnel, and an Act of Parliament was obtained. The preliminary step was parallel borings, like cheese-tastings, made beneath the bed of the Thames, in the direction of the proposed tunnel. As to the level to be taken, Mr. Brunel consulted the geologists, who for once were not happy in their theories. They informed the engineer that below a certain depth a quicksand would be found, and he must therefore keep above it, and as close as possible to the stratum of firm clay forming the bed of the river. The Tower Subway has since shown the absurdity of this theory, and the folly of not making preliminary experiments, however costly. If the tunnel had been begun in a different place, and at the deep level of the Tower Subway, Mr. Brunel would have saved years of labour, many lives, and about a quarter of a million of money. | |
In , the laborious and for a long time unsuccessful work was begun, by erecting a round brick cylinder feet high, feet in circumference, and feet distant from the river. The excavators then commenced on the inside, cutting away the earth, which was raised to the top of the shaft by a steam-engine placed there, which also relieved them from the water that occasionally impeded their progress. The engine raised gallons a minute, and at a later stage served to draw carriages along the temporary tunnel railway, | |
p.129 | and also hoisted up and let down all things required by the masons. The bricklayers kept heightening their little circular fort as they themselves sank deeper in the earth. By this shaft [extra_illustrations.2.129.1] congratulated himself he had evaded the bed of gravel and sand feet deep, and full of land-water, which had annoyed his predecessors. When the shaft was sunk to its present depth of feet, another shaft of feet diameter was sunk lower; and at the depth of feet the ground suddenly gave way, and sand and water were, as Mr. Saunders describes it,
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[extra_illustrations.2.129.2] itself was begun at the depth of feet. Mr. Brunel proposed to make his tunnel feet broad and feet high, leaving room within for archways each feet high, and each wide enough for a single carriage-way and a footpath. The wonderful teredo shield, a great invention for a special object, consisted of separate divisions, each containing cells, above another. When an advance was required, the men in their cells pulled down the top poling-board defences, and cut away the earth about. inches; the polingboards in each division below were then removed, and the same amount of earth removed, and then replaced. says a describer of the shield, As the miners were at work at end of the cells, the bricklayers at the other were busy as bees forming the brick walls of the tunnel, top, sides, and bottom, the crushing earth above being fended off by the shield till the bricklayers had finished. Following the shield was a rolling stage in each archway, for the; assistance of the men in the upper cells. | |
The difficulties, however, from not keeping to the stiff, firm, and impervious London clay, proved almost insuperable, even to Mr. Brunel. The feet of the tunnel, driven through firm clay, in the early part of the year , were followed by a dangerously-loose watery sand, which cost anxious days' labour. From March to September all went well, and feet of the tunnel were completed. On the Brunel prophesied an irruption of the river at the next tide. It came, but the precautions taken had rendered it harmless. By the , feet were accomplished, but loose clay forced itself through the shield. In April, the bed of the river had to be explored in a divingbell. Bags of clay were used to fill up depressions. A shovel and hammer, accidentally left in the river, were afterwards found in the shield during an influx of loose ground, eighteen feet below. In May, however, came the long-expected, disaster, chiefly caused by vessels coming in at a late tide, and mooring just above the head of the tunnel, causing a great washing away of the soil round them. Mr. Beamish, the resident assistant engineer, thus graphically describes the irruption:-- | |
he writes, | |
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The next step was to repair the hole in the riverbed. Its position being ascertained by the divingbell, bags of clay, spiked with small hazel rods, were employed to effectually close it. In a few weeks the water was got under, and by the middle of August the tunnel was cleared of the soil that had washed in, and the engineer was able to examine his shattered fortifications. In all essentials the structure remained perfectly sound, though a part of the brickwork close to the shield had been washed away to half its original thickness, and the chain which had held together the divisions of the shield had snapped like a cotton thread. The enemy--so powerless when kept at a distance, so irresistible at its full strength-had driven deep into the ground heavy pieces of iron belonging to the shield. | |
Amid all these dangers the men displayed great courage and perseverance. Brunel's genius had roused them to a noble and generous disregard of the opposing principles of nature. The alarms were frequent, the apprehension incessant. At any moment the deluge might come; and the men worked, like labourers in a dangerous coal mine, in constant terror from either fire or water. Now and then a report like a cannon-shot would announce the snap of some portion of the overstrained shield; sometimes there were frightened cries from the foremost workers, as the earth and water rushed in and threatened to sweep all before them. At the same time during these alarming irruptions, large quantities of carburetted and sulphuretted hydrogen would burst into fire, and wrap the whole place in a sudden sheet of flame. Those who witnessed these explosions describe the effect of the fire dancing on the surface of the water as singularly beautiful. The miners and bricklayers, encouraged by the steadfast hand at the helm, got quite accustomed to these outbursts, and, at the shout of used to cry, reckless as soldiers in the trenches. | |
But still worse than these violent protests of Nature was a more subtle and deadly enemy. The air grew so thick and impure, especially in summer, that sometimes the most stalwart labourers were carried out insensible, and all the workmen suffered from headache, sickness, and cutaneous eruptions. It was a great struggle, nobly borne. They shared Brunel's anxieties, and were eager for a share of his fame, for he had inspired the humblest hodman with something of his own high impulse. writes a chronicler of the tunnel,
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By , the middle of the river had been reached, and no human life had yet been sacrificed. But, as if the evil principle had only retired to prepare for a fresh attack, a terrible crisis now came. says Mr. Brunel, jun., in a letter written to the directors on the fatal Saturday, ,
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This was a crisis indeed. The alarmists grew into a majority, and the funds of the company were exhausted. The hole in the river-bed was discoveted by the divers to be very formidable; it was oblong and perpendicular, and measured about feet in length. The old mode of mending was resorted to. tons of earth (chiefly clay, in bags) were employed to patch the place. The tunnel remained as substantial as ever, but the work was for years suspended. Brunel, whose tenacity of purpose was unshakable, was almost in a state of frenzy at this accident. So far his plan had apparently failed, but the engineer's star had not yet forsaken him. In , the Government, after many applications, agreed to make some advances for the continuation of the work, and it was once more resumed with energy. The progress was at very slow; for, of sixtysix weeks, feet inches only per week were accomplished during the eighteen, feet inches per week during the eighteen, foot per week during the eighteen, and during the last weeks only feet inches altogether. This will excite little surprise when we know, says a clever writer on the subject, that the ground in front of the shield was, from excessive saturation, almost constantly in little better than a fluid state; that an entire new and artificial bed had to be formed in the river in advance; and brought down by ingenious contrivances till it was deep enough to occupy the place of the natural soil where the excavation was to be made, and, that then there must be time allowed for its settlement, whenever the warning rush of sand and water was heard in the shield. Lastly, owing to the excavation being so much below that of any other works around the tunnel, it formed a drain and receptacle for all the water of the neighbourhood. This was ultimately remedied by the sinking of the shaft on the side. Yet it was under such circumstances that the old shield injured by the last irruption was taken away and replaced by a new . This was executed by Brunel without the loss of a single life. But now fresh difficulties arose: the expenditure had been so great that the Lords of the Treasury declined to make further advances without the sanction of Parliament. The | |
p.132 | examination of Mr. Brunel and the assistant engineers before a Parliamentary Committee led, however, to favourable results, and the work was again renewed. |
In , a irruption and several narrow escapes occurred. The water had gradually increased at the east corner, since m. on the , rushing into the shield with a hollow roar, as though it fell through a cavity in the riverbed. A boat was then sent into the tunnel, to convey material to block up the frames. Notwithstanding, the water gained upon the men, and rapidly rose in the tunnel. About m., the water having risen to within feet of the crown of the arch, it was thought wise for the men to retire, which they did with great courage, along | |
a platform constructed by Mr. Brunel in the east arch only a few weeks before. As the water still continued rising, after the men left, Mr. Page, the acting engineer, and others, got into the boat, in order to reach the stages and see if any change had taken place; but after passing the feet mark in the tunnel the line attached to the boat ran out, and they returned to lengthen it. This accident saved their lives, for while they were preparing the rope the water surged up the arch or feet. They instantly made their way to the shaft, and Mr. Page, fearing the men might get jammed in the staircase, called to them to go steadily; but they, misunderstanding him, returned, and could hardly be prevailed upon to go up. Had the line been long enough, all the persons in the boat must | |
p.133 | have perished, for no less than a million gallons of water now burst into the tunnel in a single minute. The lower gas-lights were now under water, and the tunnel was almost in darkness. The water had now risen to within feet of the entrance of the tunnel, and was advancing in a wave. As Mr. Page and his assistants arrived at the landing of the visitors' stairs, the waves had risen up to the knees of the last man. |
The next irruption was in , when the water burst in about in the morning, and soon filled the tunnel. Excellent arrangements had been made for the safety of the men, and all the or more persons employed at the time escaped, but -he alone did not answer when the roll was called; and some remembered seeing a miner going towards the shield when all the rest were escaping. The and last serious irruption occurred on . It was preceded by a noise resembling thunder, but no loss of life occurred. | |
The last feeble struggle of the river against its persistent enemy was in . About a.m., it being then low water, during a movement of the poling-boards in the shield, a quantity of gravel and water rushed into the frame. The | |
ground rushed in immediately, and knocked the men out of their cells, and they fled in a panic; but finding the water did not follow, they returned, and by great exertions succeeded in stopping the run, when upwards of ,ooo cubic feet of ground had fallen into the tunnel, The fall was attended with a noise like thunder, and the extinguishing of all the lights. At the same time, to the horror of , part of the shore in that place sank, over an area of upwards of feet, leaving a cavity on the shore of about feet in diameter, and feet in depth. Had this taken place at high water, the tunnel would have been filled; as it was, men were sent over with bags of clay and gravel, and everything rendered secure by the return of the tide. | |
Sometimes sand, nearly fluid, would ooze through minute cracks between the small poling-boards of the shield, and leave large cavities in the ground in front. On of these occasions the sand poured in all night, and filled the bottom of the shield. In the morning, on opening of the faces, a hollow was discovered, eighteen feet long, feet high, and feet deep. This cavity was filled up with brickbats and lumps of clay. of the miners was compelled to lay himself down in this | |
p.134 [extra_illustrations.2.134.1] | cavity, for the purpose of building up the further end, though at the risk of being buried alive.. |
At last, on the , Sir Isambard Brunel passed down the shaft on the side of the Thames, and thence, by a small drift-way through the shield, into the tunnel. The difficulties of the great work had at last been surmounted. | |
The tunnel measures feet. The carriageways were originally intended to consist of an immense spiral road, winding twice round a circular excavation feet deep, in order to reach the proper level. The extreme diameter of this spiral road was to be no less than feet. The road itself was to have been feet wide, and the descent very moderate. The tunnel is now turned into a part of the East London Railway, which will form, a junction between the Great Eastern Railway and the various branches of the Brighton Railway on the south of the Thames. | |
, now called , is the of London sailors, who, in many instances, never extend their walks in the metropolis beyond this semi-marine region. It derives its name from the manor of Ratcliffe in the parish of Stepney. Stow describes it as so increased in building eastward in his time that, instead of a large highway, as he had known it, it had joined Limehurst or Lime host, corruptly called , a mile distant from Ratcliffe. In Dryden's miscellaneous poems, Tom, of the characters, remarks that he had heard a ballad about the Protector Somerset sung at Ratcliff Cross. | |
The wild-beast shops in this street have often been sketched by modern essayists. The yards in the neighborhood are crammed with lions, hyenas, pelicans, tigers, and other animals in demand among the proprietors of menageries. As many as to lions are often in stock at time, and sailors come here to sell their pets and barter curiosities. The ingenious way that animals are stored in these out-of-the-way places is well worth seeing. | |
has not been the scene of many very memorable events. In , however, it was startled by a series of murders that for a time struck all London with terror, and produced a deep conviction in the public mind that the old watchmen who then paraded the city were altogether insufficient to secure the safety of its inhabitants. Mr. Marr, the victim, kept a lace and pelisse shop at No. , . At about at night on Saturday, , he sent out his servant-girl to purchase some oysters for supper, while he shut up the shop-windows. On the girl's return, in a quarter of an hour, she rang the bell, but obtained no answer. As she listened at the key-hole, she thought she could hear a person breathing at the same aperture; she therefore gave the alarm. On the shop being broken open, Mr. Marr was found dead behind the counter, Mrs. Marr and the shop-boy dead in another part of the shop, and a child murdered in the cradle. The murderer had, it was supposed, used a ship-mallet, and had evidently come in on pretence of purchasing goods, as Marr had been reaching down some stockings when he was struck. Very little if any money was missed from the till. days after, before the horror and alarm caused by these murders could subside, other crimes followed. On the , Williamson, the landlord of the King's Arms public-house, Old , , with his wife, and female servant were also murdered. An apprentice who lodged at the house, coming down-stairs in alarm at hearing a door slam, saw the murderer stooping and taking the keys out of the pocket of Mrs. Williamson. The murderer heard him, and pursued him upstairs; but the lad, fastening his sheets to a bed, let himself down out of window into the street. [extra_illustrations.2.134.2] , and driven past the houses of Marr and Williamson. A stake was then driven through his breast, and his carcase thrown into a hole dug for the purpose, where the crosses and begins. | |
It was remembered afterwards, by a girl to whom the murderer had been attached, that he had once asked her if she should be frightened if she awoke in the night and saw him standing with a knife by her bedside. The girl replied, Very little was discovered of the man's antecedents, but it is said that the captain of the East Indiaman in which he had sailed had predicted his speedy death by the gallows. These murders excited the imagination of De Quincey, the opium-eater, who wrote a wonderful though not strictly accurate version of the affair. Macaulay, writing of the alarm in England at the supposed murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, says,
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In the Swedish Church, , , lies buried that extraordinary man, Baron Swedenborg, founder of the sect of Swedenborgians, who died in . This strange mystic, who discovered an inner meaning in the Scriptures, believed that in visions he had visited both heaven and hell; he was also a practical mineralogist of great scientific attainments. | |
We now come to [extra_illustrations.2.135.1] , that nautical hamlet of Stepney, a long street extending from Lower to New Crane. It, was begun in I, to secure the manor from the encroachments of the river, which had turned this part of the north bank of the Thames into a great wash or swamp; the Commissioners of Sewers rightly imagining that when building once began, the tenants would not fail to keep out the river, for the sake of their own, lives and properties. Stow calls it Wappingin- the-Wose, or Wash; and Strype describes it as a place
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It must have been a dirty, dangerous place in Stow's time, when it was chiefly remarkable as being the place of execution for pirates. Stow says of it-
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Pirates were hung at East as early as the reign of Henry VI., for in a edited by Sir Harris Nicolas, we read that in this reign bargemen were hung beyond St. Katherine's, for murdering Flemings and a child in a Flemish vessel; And as late as we read in the , Howell, in his , says, In of those wild romantic plays of the end of the Shakespearean era, , a tragi-comedy by Thomas Heywood and [extra_illustrations.2.135.2] , the writer fixes scene near , where pirates, called Purser and Clinton, are brought to die. of these men delivers himself of a grand rhapsody-
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The audience, no doubt, sympathised with these gallant filibusters, whose forays and piracies against Spain would be thought by many present very venial offences. | |
In Townsend, the celebrated runner, was examined before a Committee of the , on the decrease of highwaymen, and other questions connected with the police of the metropolis. He was particularly questioned as to the advantage of hanging men in chains. The sturdy old officer, with the memorable white hat, was strongly for the custom. he said,
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In of Hogarth's series of the Idle and Industrious Apprentices, the artist has introduced a man hanging in chains further down the river; and a friend of the author's remembers seeing a pirate hung in chains on the , and a crow on his shoulder, pecking his flesh through the iron netting that enclosed the body. | |
, it will be remembered, was in the scene of the capture of the cruel minister of James II., Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, who, trying to make his escape in the disguise of a common seaman, was captured in a mean ale-house, called the in Anchor-and-Hope Alley, near King Edward's Stairs, in . He was recognised by a poor scrivener, whom he had once terrified when in his clutches, as he was lolling out of window, confident in his security. The story of his capture is related with much vividness and unction by Macaulay:-- | |
says the historian, | |
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Strype records the fact that on , King Charles I., having hunted a stag all the way from Wanstead, in Essex, ran him down at last, and killed him in ,
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Dr. Johnson, in conversation with that excellent listener, Boswell, talked much of the wonderful extent and variety of London, and observed that men of curious inquiry might see in it such modes of life as only few could imagine. says Boswell,
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Joseph Ames, that well-known antiquary and lover of old books, who wrote was a | |
p.137 [extra_illustrations.2.137.1] | ship-chandler in a humble alley of , where he died, in . This worthy old student is described as a person of vast application and industry in collecting old printed books and prints, and other curiosities, both natural and artificial. His curious notices of Caxton's works, and of very rare early books, were edited and enlarged, by Herbert, and lastly by that enthusiastic bibliomaniac, T. F. Dibdin. Another celebrated native of was John Day, a block and pump maker, who originated that popular festivity, Fairlop Fair, in Hainault Forest. |
Amongst the ship and boat builders of , the rope makers, biscuit bakers, mast, oar, and block makers, many years ago, a prying nurseryman observed in a small window a pretty West Indian flower, which he purchased. It proved to be a fuchsia, which was then unknown in England. The flower became popular, and cuttings from it were the next year sold at guinea each. | |
Among the taverns and public-houses in and , says Mr. Timbs, are the signs of the
the
the
the and the
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Between and , , are , immortalised by Dibdin's fine old song--
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Going still further east we come to , which, like , was a hamlet of Stepney, till , when it was separated by Act of Parliament. It derives its name, it is supposed by Lysons, from a spring dedicated to St. Chad. Its extent is very small, being only yards long, and broad. In Lysons' time, the only land in the parish not built on was the Sun Tavern Fields, in which were rope-walks, where cables were made, from to inches in girth; the rest of the parish was occupied by ships' chandlers, biscuit bakers, ship-builders, mast-makers, sail-makers, and anchorsmiths. The church of [extra_illustrations.2.137.2] was built in the year , but it was not consecrated till . It was rebuilt in on the old site. There were waterworks established in by Thomas Neale, Esq., in . | |
About a mineral spring, which was called Spa, was discovered by Walter Berry, Esq., when sinking a well in Sun Tavern Fields. It was said to be impregnated with sulphur, vitriol, steel, and antimony. A pamphlet was written by Dr. Linden, in , to prove it could cure every disease. The water was found useful in cutaneous diseases. It was then employed for extracting salts, and for preparing a liquor with which the calicoprinters fix their colours. The waters of another mineral spring in resemble those of the postern spring on . Cook's almshouses at are mentioned by the local historians. | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.2.129.1] Mr. Brunel [extra_illustrations.2.129.2] The tunnel [extra_illustrations.2.134.1] An Account of Mass Murder: European Magazine, December 1811 [extra_illustrations.2.134.2] The murderer a sailor named Williams, escaped, though the house was almost instantly surrounded; but was soon after captured at a sailors' boardinghouse, where a knife stained with blood was afterwards found secreted. The wretch hanged himself in prison the night of his arrest. His body was placed on a platform in a high cart with the mallet and ripping chisel, with which he had committed the murders, by his side [extra_illustrations.2.135.1] Wapping [extra_illustrations.2.135.2] William rowley [extra_illustrations.2.137.1] New Church, Stepney [extra_illustrations.2.137.2] St. Paul |