Brunel Museum

The Brunel Museum is a London-based museum, dedicated to the Brunels, and their great achievements, notably the Thames Tunnel, birthplace of the tube system.  The present building was a roofless ruin twenty-five years ago, and six years ago the museum was open to just 500 visitors a year. Today it is open every day and runs community & education events that draw over 15,000 people to the Museum each year.

The museum aims to bring a greater understanding of the Brunels’ daring engineering and radical thinking, to enthusiasts and to new audiences alike. This year, before the Tunnel re-opened for London Overground trains, the Mayor of London led three thousand people on a walk under the river. Modern visitors took part in the re-launch of the world’s first underwater fair.

The Museum piazza now has three award winning sculptures of Brunel’s Bridges, built by artists and engineers with local children. They hope to add to these the ‘lost bridge’ of Paddington, and a sculptured glass river, making a dramatic new attraction on the Thames Path.

The Museum is the first in the world to use a new green lighting technology and there are inter-active displays & associated programmes about the Great Eastern and Royal Albert Bridge.

There are modern facilities for the growing number of visitors; including a new education centre, a riverside café, fully equipped kitchen and everything for corporate events, parties and other bookings. But there is more to do… Work has begun to extend the Museum into Brunel’s original shaft, once the Grand Entrance Hall. Balfour Beatty Carillion and Transport for London have suspended a concrete shelf above the railway lines to create a hidden amphitheatre half the size of Shakespeare’s Globe.  Fitted out, this new gallery and performance space will be London’s tribute to Brunel’s engineering, and a showcase for the best of British inventions. 

For more information on events at the Brunel Museum, visit their website.