Monday 26th September saw the first of what we hope will become regular Research Salons—opportunities for members of Global Lives, their Doctoral Researchers and external partners to meet in interesting locations off-site to discuss their work, to develop new contacts and to consider how the work of the Centre can be developed.
As appropriate for Brunel University, the first of these salons was held at the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe, located in the shaft that once used to lead Londoners down to a tunnel connecting Rotherhithe on the south of the river with Wapping on the north bank. Plagued by difficulties in its construction and delayed by regular inundations from the river above, the tunnel took Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his father, Marc Brunel, some eighteen years to complete.
The tunnel was eventually opened in 1843, but owing to lack of funds, the money to build the ramps for horses and carriages to access the tunnel could not be constructed and it functioned only as a foot tunnel until its eventual closure. Evidently the lack of sufficient funds was just as much a problem for Victorian Londoners as it is for their 21st century cousins!
The salon ended with an excellent presentation by Sharon Lockyer, the Director of the Centre for Comedy Studies Research, providing an insight into the research work with which the CCSR is engaged. This led to a stimulating discussion about the possibilities of developing research in this area and the ways in which it might connect to the work of other staff in Global Lives.
Watch this space for future Global Lives Salon events that will showcase our research efforts and the adventure that London itself can be.
Andrew Green