London free love Day 4: Thames Walk (via Brunel Museum)

Dough stick wrapped in rice paper

Matt's been craving yum cha - Chinese dumplings - for a few weeks. So today, we travelled to our favourite Chinese restaurant Phoenix Palace at Baker Street.

After lunch we went to the Brunel Museum, which is not part of the Free Love challenge because it's £2 entry, or £5 for the full tour. The Brunel Museum is a seriously kooky, but under-funded little museum that needs your attention. The Museum focuses on the Thames Tunnel, one of the first sub-aqueous (underwater) tunnels in the world, and the oldest tunnel in use on the London underground system. 




You can ride on the London overground (which goes underground - confused yet?) from Rotherhithe to Wapping and you pass under the Thames via Brunel's Thames Tunnel.


The tunnel was built in 1843, and was an engineering feat of its day, although a complete commercial failure. Back then, there were no big drills. Instead miners were employed to work in, what Brunel named, the shield, which looks like something from Dante's Divine Comedy.


"The shield was rectangular and had 12 digging positions across its width and three digging positions on top of each other so allowing 36 miners to work simultaneously. in front of each miner there were a series of horizontal boards. The miner would unscrew the top one to expose the earth and would then dig horizontally away from him two inches of earth. He would then replace the board screwing it tight into the void he had created. He would then unscrew the next board down and do the same. once he had got to the bottom board he would start from the top again. The second time he finished at the bottom board his whole digging position would be jacked forward using screw jacks and the process would be started again. So the Thames Tunnel was dug two inches at a time for 1,200 feet across the River Thames."


For the extra £3 there was a tour of the Shaft, which is literally a big concrete tank. It now has a floor so people can stand in it. Before then it was just a hole in the ground that went straight to the London tube system. The only reason they built a lid on the shaft was during the Blitz, in case a German bomber managed to take out the London transport.


The museum was also a good excuse to go for a wander along one of my favourite parts of the Thames - the gritty old warehouses along from Rotherhithe to Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge from the East

There's something stark and lonely about looking to the West from the East side of the river. There's less people about and life is a little slower.

So if you are looking for something to do this weekend, head down to the lonely side of Tower Bridge. 

Meeting the locals