This is a double-level paper peepshow depicting the two arches of the Thames Tunnel, with the river below. It includes 4 bellows, each of which is stitched as opposed to the majority of peepshows in which the folding construction is achieved through use of adhesive.
In common with the vast majority of peepshows, it is unsigned and therefore cannot be securely attributed to a single maker. As is also typical, the imagery draws on known sources (e.g. the image on the front board, which appears to derive from a version of SS Great Britain, Bristol, 2014.03064), or else presents close similarities with other objects that indicate a common source now lost to us.
The peepshow likely dates to after 1844 and probably up to around 1855. A terminus post quem is provided by the lack of horses shown in the Tunnel (unlike e.g. LDBRU:2003.4) — the object therefore must post-date the eventual abandonment of the projected ‘Great Descents’. There is no explanatory text which often provides a means of dating peepshows such as this.
Notably unusual is the depiction of stalls in the Tunnel. As the Tunnel was never designed to be used in this manner, depictions typically ‘clean’ the vista, presenting it as devoid of extraneous elements so as to emphasise the architectural features. Instead, what we see here is a peepshow which more closely represents the Tunnel in operation as an underwater shopping arcade.
Notable here, too, is the presence of figures who may represent either ‘exotic’ figures in stereotypical ‘foreign’ dress – indicative of the numerous, visibly Othered, non-British visitors, who presumably also formed part of the spectacle of the Tunnel from the assumed perspective of white British visitors — or otherwise performers/acts, e.g. magicians. Either the peepshow thus depicts the international aspect of the Tunnel as a tourist site, or again depicts further elements of the popular entertainment available there.