Dates

• Existence: 28 February 1824 - 22 February 1897

Biography

Jean François Gravelet aka Charles Blondin was the most famous tightrope walker of all time.

Blondin was born in Hesdin, Pas-de-Calais, France in 1824. He started to train in gymnastics at the age of five and such was his natural skill that he became a child wonder and started to give performances soon after.

Blondin started to travel around America in 1855. Here he achieved international fame when he famously crossed the Niagara Gorge on the tightrope in 1859.

In the 1860s Blondin returned to Europe and started travelling around Britain performing in some of its most iconic locations including the Crystal Palace in London, The Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh and the Royal Portobello Gardens in Dublin. Blondin settled his permanent residence in London, from where he continued travelling around the UK and Europe. In 1873 he mimicked his Niagara triumph by crossing Edgbaston Reservoir in Birmingham.

Blondin performed many feats of dexterity on the tightrope during his career including crossing with a man on his back, rolling a wheelbarrow, blindfolded, in a sack, on stilts, sitting down halfway to cook and eat an omelette and on a bicycle, all of which was captured in the press of the day and multiple illustrations.

Between 1880 and 1896 after retiring from rope walking, Blondin starred in pantomimes in England and Ireland.

Blondin died at his house in Ealing, London, on 22 February 1897 aged 72.

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