The spirit of Victorian Britain was invoked yesterday as the historic Thames Tunnel - once a hub of vice and iniquity - was reopened to visitors for the first time.
Known at the time as the Eighth Wonder of the World, the engineering triumph of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel has been closed to the public for 145 years.
But visitors yesterday harked back to the days when the first underwater tunnel drew thronging crowds who indulged in the hedonistic pursuits of the 19th century.
Initially designed to transport cargo, the inaugural project for the 19-year-old Isambard ran over budget and was swiftly turned into a famed entertainment venue under the Thames.
It gripped the nation's imag-ination, drawing an exotic mixture of dancers, sword swallowers, Chinese singers and tight-rope walkers.
Speaking to a group of visitors yesterday, Robert Hulse, director of the Brunel Museum, invoked a flavour of the tunnel as it once was.
"It is quiet now but imagine this echoing with laughter and screams of delight, and parties of people," he said.
"This is a Victorian rave, this is vaudeville, a party place."
The tunnel, which opened to pedestrian traffic in 1843, was visited by Queen Victoria that year.
Around 50,000 people are believed to have trooped down its staircase on the first day alone to sample the delights on offer underground.
Party goers continued to be drawn to the tunnel for its "Fancy Fairs", shops under the archways, and bawdy carnivalesque side shows.
But it soon fell into disrepute, attracting a seamier collection of characters.
It was later handed over to the East London Railway and is now used by London Underground's East London Line.
It has been opened to visitors for a two-day period as part of London's East Festival.
TV personality Michael Palin said its continued use was "testimony to the far-sighted technical skill of Marc and Isambard Brunel".
"This great underwater crossing was a feat of engineering which the Victorians, never short on hyperbole, called the Eighth Wonder of the World," he said.
"The Thames Tunnel held a grip on the popular imagination of the time, a combination of joy, pleasure, wonder and sheer excitement which is not dead and which echoes up from the river-bed to this day."
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: "We are delighted that the works on the East London Line are working so well to time that we have been able to put them on hold for two days so that the public will get this never-again chance to walk through the Thames Tunnel.
"Brunel's achievements taught us that it is vital to invest in transport infrastructure, the benefits of which are preserved for Londoners for generations to come."
The 396 metre -Thames Tunnel, which connects Rotherhithe with Wapping, measures 11metre wide by six-metre high and was built between 1825 and 1843 using newly invented tunnelling shield technology.
It was the first tunnel known to have successfully been constructed under a navigable river.