(This photo, incidentally, will be included in Imagining Winnipeg, with the caption "Banquet to celebrate completion of underground reservoir at St. Boniface Waterworks, 552 Plinguet Street, 1912. N3012.") In her post, Laura says:
"There’s an odd custom of holding banquets in subterranean structures going back to 1827 with Marc Brunel’s candelabra-lit supper in the Thames Tunnel to prove how safe it was, and continuing on to a 1994 luncheon in the Channel Tunnel attended by the Queen."
There aren't any photographs of the 1827 banquet online, but I thought I'd share this painting of the event by George Jones, entitled The Banquet in the Thames Tunnel.
According to Wikipedia, Jones was a British painter and Keeper of the Royal Academy. He was most famous for his paintings of military subjects.
Further to banquets in underground spaces: when Joseph Bazalgette finished building the London sewer system, both the Crossness (in 1865) and the Abbey Mills pumping stations (in 1868) hosted banquets in the rooms above. Down below, visitors toured the still empty reservoirs. Both buildings still stand as triumphs of grand, gingerbread-house Victorian architecture, although the sewage is now processed elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteHow very interesting, Laura! Thanks for your further to this further to...
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