Collection
Discover our collection of objects.
Watercolour of planned Shaft and section of a Tunnel
Watercolour of a longitudinal section showing the Rotherhithe shaft with the first section of tunnel constructed, with two miners in profile working at the upper and lower sections of the shield, two gentlemen inspecting the works [possibly Brunel and a visitor], and a miner wheeling away soil in a barrow; cut from a larger sheet.
Side view of the Thames Tunnel after flooding
Watercolour conveying "Longitudinal section of part of Thames tunnel showing the state of the strata and coveringafter the Run of Sand", signed with monogram [?] "R.P.", inscribed to Brunel's son-in-law Benjamin Hawes MP, dated "3
March 1837".
Cross-section of the Thames Tunnel after flooding
Watercolour featuring a "Transverse section of the Thames tunnel and strata...", extensively annotated, and signed with monogram [?] "R.P.", inscribed to Brunel's son-in-law Benjamin Hawes MP, dated "3 March 1837".
Watercolour of a cylindrical tunnelling shield
Watercolour featuring a cylindrical tunnelling shield with crank (apparently for propelling cast-iron segments into place), cut from a larger sheet (conjoint with LDBRU:2017.19), with scale of feet, dated "September 1818".
Two watercolour views of a cylindrical tunnelling shield
Cylindrical tunnelling shield, two views, one with a miner at work, cut from a larger sheet with ink-ruled border at left-hand and lower edge (conjoint with LDBRU:2017.20)
Side view of the flooded Tunnel
Watercolour of a longitudinal section (attributable to Joseph Pinchback) of the tunnel, showing the inundation of the river into the workings and the mass of bagged clay dropped on a raft into the riverbed to fill the gap, with the Brunels' engineering assistant Richard Beamish examining the state of the shield with the aid of a bull's-eye; lantern, his companion in a boat; feint caption in pencil "No. 8"
Cross-section of the Tunnel and displaced ground
Watercolour illustrating a "Cross Section of the Tunnel showing the extent of displaced ground" at Trinity High Water and Low Water, signed by Joseph Pinchback.
Watercolour of the timbering for the removal of the old Shield
Watercolour depicting the "Timbering for the Removal of the Old Shield/ Side Timbering", signed "Rich. Beamish"; cut from a larger sheet
‘Cross-section of a Tunnel for the use of infantry, shown in its full extent’
Watercolour of a proposed Tunnel for military use, drawn by Joseph Pinchback in 1818 and captioned in French by Marc Brunel
Watercolour of proposed three-part Shield
Watercolour showing a section of a tripartite shield with twelve miners at work in the shield; with partial ink border and seemingly a companion piece of LDBRU:2017.11, originally part of the same sheet.
Watercolour of proposed three-part tunnel
Watercolour representing a section of the tunnel, showing on the left a stagecoach riding through the tunnel, to the centre and right men at work in the shield; with partial ink border (cut from a larger sheet).
Four views of the Tunnelling Shield
A technical illustration of one of Brunel’s early designs for a method of tunnelling.
Watercolour of the Tunnel and Shield
Watercolour depicting a section of the tunnel, shield and movable stage, showing one of the arches not yet cut out from the encasing brickwork, attributed to Joseph Pinchback.
Watercolour of the Rotherhithe Shaft
Watercolour depicting the "Mode of Sinking the Shaft" which shows the Rotherhithe shaft surmounted by a steam engine powering buckets-and-pulley soil extraction, with miners digging at the face, attributable to Joseph Pinchback.
Watercolour of proposed tunnelling Shield
Watercolour depicting three miners at work in the tunnel; shows how miners would dig forward, and the whole shield would be driven forward by hydraulics, in exactly the way that was eventually used, on a larger scale, in the "Great Shield"
Watercolour of one frame of the Shield
Watercolour depicting an "Isometrical projection of one of the Twelve Iron Frames forming the Shield/ shewing
the manner in which the ground in front was altogether supported", headed "One Frame", signed R. Beamish.
Yates shaft watercolour
A fine and important topographical water colour of the Shaft of the Thames Tunnel by George Yates, dated 1835
Brunel tunnel watercolour
Watercolour of the Thames Tunnel and river above, signed by Marc Brunel, 1835
Marc Brunel mezzotint
This print depicts Marc Brunel early in his career in Britain, before work had begun on the Tunnel. It was published on 30 March 1815 by Charles Turner (1773-1857), a London engraver and publisher, and reproduces an oil painting done by James Northcote (1746-1831). Prints such as this were central to the 19th-century art market and provided far greater publicity than could be achieved through a single copy of a painting, with this print therefore contributing to raising Brunel’s public profile. The print was done in mezzotint, a technique widely used for reproducing oil paintings, at an important moment in the history of engraving in Britain.
German lithographic print of the Thames Tunnel
Two-colour German lithographic print of twelve views of the Thames Tunnel with descriptive text, printed in March 1828 by Rudolph Schlicht in Mannheim and entitled 'Drawings of the Road linking Rotherhithe to Wapping in London under the Thames, called The Tunnel'.