Wire, tightrope wire

This section of wire is part of the tightrope used by Charles Elleano when he walked across the River Thames on 22 September 1951 as part of the the Festival of Britain celebrations. More than 150,000 people watched Monsieur Elleano as he made the perilous highwire walk alongside Waterloo Bridge on the last weekend of the Festival. The wire was donated to the Museum by Antony Hippesley Coxe, who had been responsible for organising publicity stunts to promote the Festival. The marketing literature claimed Elleano was 'the first man to cross the Thames on a tightrope wire' although this had actually been achieved 90 years earlier by a female tightrope walker who crossed the River from Cremorne Gardens.