Changing Plans: A Circular Tunnel?
The Thames Tunnel as built differs from the original ideas set forward by Marc Brunel in 1818. Today’s Thames Tunnel is a horseshoe shape, but Marc did consider a circular tunnel at one point as these two images from the Thames Tunnel watercolours show. However, it didn’t take him long to realise a circular tunnel …
Coffee Box returns to the Brunel Museum this Easter weekend!
Once again, from Friday 15 April, the Brunel Museum’s riverside terrace will transform into an outdoor cafe –regular attendees to Dulwich market will recognise the Coffee Box van, which offers organic coffees and freshly squeezed juices. Food and drink is a important part of the history of the Thames Tunnel, the site of the …
Help showcase the Art of Engineering at the Brunel Museum!
We need your help to raise £18, 500 to bring these incredible illustrations out of storage and display them at the Brunel Museum. Buried in a family album for almost two hundred years, these drawings have changed the shape of our cities and the lives of city dwellers. Yet they have never been on display …
Nominate us for the Family Friendly Museum Award!
Nominations are now open for the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Award 2022! Each year Kids in Museums puts the power in families’ hands to crown the winner of its annual Family Friendly Museum Award. The award recognises museums, galleries and heritage sites that go the extra mile to provide a great experience for …
The mother of all engineers
Dspite being the reason for the Brunel’s unusual middle name, the contribution of his mother, Sophia Kingdom is often overlooked. Changed that today in our fantastic blog. Let our Finance Manager Sarah Kuklewicz put that right: Early Life Sophia Kingdom was the 16th child of William Kingdom and Joan Spry. William was a Plymouth …
Opening crowd
Difficult as it may currently be to imagine happily joining a crowd, that is what I am asking you to envision: On Saturday 25th March 1843, the Thames Tunnel finally opened, eighteen years after the start of the project. Visitors eagerly arrived in Rotherhithe on foot, coach, horseback or by boat. A printing press had …
Guest blog: Castles in the air
To launch our brand new collaboration with History Hit and our new Clifton Suspension Bridge display, Hannah Little from Clifton Suspension Bridge has written a guest blog on how a near-death experience at the tunnel led the younger Brunel to Bristol… In 1826 Marc Isambard Brunel’s son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) was appointed as Resident …
Brunel Museum teams up with History Hit
The Brunel Museum is excited to partner with History Hit to bring you even more wonders of the industrial age pioneered by the Brunels. From this weekend, visitors to the Museum can now discover the story of the Clifton Suspension Bridge in our new display. Ismabard Kingdom brunel was particularly fond of the Clifton Suspension …
Sophia Macnamara Hawes (nee Brunel) #OTDH
During #WomensHistoryMonth we’re sharing the stories of women who made engineering history: from the lesser known Brunel women, trailblazing female engineers from the past or the women making history today. Today’s post is from our volunteer Gill Howard and is about Marc’s first child, Sophia Brunel Sophia Macnamara Brunel (b. 30 April 1802, d. 17th …
Women’s History Month: Boring women
Today marks the beginning of #WomensHistoryMonth and we’re sharing the stories of women who made engineering history: from the lesser known Brunel women, trailblazing female engineers from the past or the women making history today with their feats of engineering. Helen Close of the Women’s Engineering Society shares her blog on the female tunnellers who trailblazed …