Built on the Great Western Dockyard in Bristol and overlooked by the SS Great Britain’s towering masts, the new Being Brunel museum comprises six galleries that join up the dots between Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s groundbreaking designs and his personal characteristics.
Matthew Tanner, the chief executive of the SS Great Britain Trust, says the museum aims to show “what the man made and what made the man”.
Brunel was the engineer behind many great achievements: the first passenger steamship with a screw propeller (rather than paddles) the SS Great Britain; the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol; the Great Western Railway (GWR) that joined London to Bristol for the first time; and the SS Great Eastern, which laid the transatlantic telegraph cable, although Brunel never saw it sail.
His visionary internationalist thinking and passionate drive, which by his own admission was a kind of madness, led Brunel to achieve feats that no engineer had dared think of before. But the man behind such achievements was also known for his formidable temper and endless cigar smoking.
In addition to exploring the SS Great Britain inside, outside and underneath (the hull, propeller and storm-battered anchor can be seen in the carefully managed conditions of the venue’s dry dock), visitors can now gain an insight into Brunel’s private and public persona in the new museum next door.
The lavish Shakespeare Room is the first area that visitors enter. This is a reconstruction of Brunel’s London apartment at 18 Duke Street. He bought it with the money earned from finishing the GWR – indeed, the splendid silver tableware on show was given to him as a gift for completing the railway line.
The room feels a little disconnected from the main museum space that it leads to, but nevertheless contains some interesting items. Paintings that depict Shakespeare’s plays (commissioned by Brunel) hang on the burgundy silk wallpapered walls, demonstrating the engineer’s taste for the arts. In the corner is Brunel’s regulator clock, which was made by the royal clockmaker Edward Dent in 1845, showing his love for precision.
There is also a digital interactive that challenges users to choose the right dinner guest to gain funding for different projects.
Brain waves
A striking eight-metre-tall 3D model of Brunel’s head with trademark cigar and stovepipe hat is the standout feature in the main museum space. The head, based on the 1857 photograph of Brunel standing in front of the launching chains of the SS Great Eastern, provides an effective hook on which to hang the rest of the displays.
In fact, visitors can walk up to the first floor and seemingly right into Brunel’s ear canal, directly into his brain, where they get a first-person audiovisual account of the engineer working on the Thames Tunnel, the injuries he sustained there, his convalescence in Bristol and resulting work on the GWR and Clifton Suspension Bridge. It’s a compelling multimedia experience that is enhanced with plumes of cigar smoke and steam, and an effective way of illustrating the challenges and human sacrifice inherent in such groundbreaking and dangerous engineering feats.
On both floors of the museum, Brunel’s personal items speak of what it was like to drive projects that shaped Britain and the rest of the world. For instance, his diary gives a frank account of his ambition and intertwined self-doubt, describing some plans as an “impossible dream”.
Other highlights include Brunel’s ivory ruler, wooden drawing tools, and a large leather cigar case with one remaining cigar, but space for 48 – a day’s supply for the engineer towards the end of his life, which ended in 1859 when he was just 53.
Many of the objects on show have been donated by the private collector Clive Richards and have never been on public display. The University of Bristol and the Brunel Institute provided a number of other works, including technical drawings.
Impressive detail
On leaving Brunel’s ear canal, visitors enter the Great Western Steamship Company’s dock office – a Grade II-listed building that has been restored as part of the project. The reconstruction was guided by a watercolour painting by Brunel’s niece, and is brought to life with an illustration mounted on Brunel’s plans office window giving a realistic view of what he would have seen of the dockyard outside. The attention to detail is impressive – there are even sound effects of a traumatised colleague that visitors hear from behind a locked door.
Merging traditional and modern curatorial features is what the institution excels at, and mannequins, smells, sounds and reconstructions are seamlessly integrated with state-of-the-art digital displays and interactives.
Among the standout exhibits is a 3D map animated with the engineer’s drawings of the route of the GWR between London and Bristol. This is an effective way of illustrating how Brunel and his workers overcame difficult terrain with masterful bridges and tunnels, changing the British landscape forever.
Visitors can also have a go at drawing a perfect circle while on board a shaking 1830s broad-gauge train carriage. Brunel used this technique to test the steadiness and quality of a railway line. We learn that he could draw a perfect circle when sat steadily, but that this is surprisingly hard to replicate in person, whether sat still or rocking from side to side.
For all its fun, exuberance and playfulness, the museum does not shy away from exploring the nitty-gritty of the theory behind Brunel’s projects, whether they were successful or not.
For instance, there are numerous panels and drawings clearly explaining his thinking behind projects such as the South Devon Atmospheric Railway, which used a vacuum in an iron pipe to propel a train along instead of a steam locomotive pulling it. The project failed because of the difficulties in keeping a strong and consistent vacuum.
Tales of triumphs and failures link well to the institution’s work with communities to inspire budding engineers, most significantly the Future Brunels programme, which aims to engage young people with Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.
Disappointingly, there is little detailed interpretation around the Clifton Suspension Bridge – an icon of Bristol – which remained unfinished for several years due to a lack of finance. It would have been useful to have more information on why it proved to be such a challenging project and how Brunel’s design differed from the final one created by Barlow and Hawkshaw (though it was based on Brunel’s design), which opened in 1864.
Overall, Being Brunel is an overwhelming success because, much like its subject, it strives to break new ground and pays painstaking attention to detail. It is also a great showcase for creative museum design.
Nicola Sullivan is a freelance writer
We wanted visitors to understand what characteristics and talents made Brunel extraordinary, so we rejected the traditional chronological approach. Instead, we use five zones that identify aspects of Brunel’s character – the Victorian, the engineer, the entrepreneur, the celebrity and the artist/designer. This approach enables us to paint the fullest possible picture of Brunel’s character. The subtleties of his personality that emerged during research helped us create a three-dimensional Brunel, complete with flaws, failures, attractive characteristics (he was the life and soul of the party) and less attractive ones (he snored).
The meta-learning objectives of the project were decided early on: what made Brunel, what did Brunel make and what does that mean for the modern world. Each zone was also given learning objectives. This made object selection and interactive design straightforward, and writing the interpretive text was almost painless.
SS Great Britain Trust’s interpretation philosophy is to start from where visitors are and then take them somewhere else. We needed to hook visitors into the story early on, and the eight-metre-high head of Brunel does just that – it stops visitors in their tracks, makes them smile and then lets them enjoy the heady mix of sights, sounds and smells.
Once they have met Brunel the man, they are ready to be fascinated by Brunel the engineer and his great steam ship next door.
Rhian Tritton is the deputy chief executive and the director of interpretation, collections and education of the SS Great Britain Trust, Bristol
Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund; Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; Clive & Sylvia Richards Charity; Wolfson Foundation; AIM Biffa Award; Being Brunel Corporate Club members
Architect Alec French Architects
Construction Beard
Exhibition and graphic design Easy Tiger Creative
Display cases Workhaus; Glasshaus
Interpretation Being Brunel Trust
Audiovisuals Centrescreen; Electrosonic; Elbow; Aivaf
Lighting Beard
Sculpture of Brunel Wild Creations
Bespoke furniture Warren Hughes
Fake fire Dimplex
Admission Adult £16.50; child (5-16) £9.50; under-fours free; concessions/students £14.50; family ticket £45; 50% discount for Museums Association members
Matthew Tanner, the chief executive of the SS Great Britain Trust, says the museum aims to show “what the man made and what made the man”.
Brunel was the engineer behind many great achievements: the first passenger steamship with a screw propeller (rather than paddles) the SS Great Britain; the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol; the Great Western Railway (GWR) that joined London to Bristol for the first time; and the SS Great Eastern, which laid the transatlantic telegraph cable, although Brunel never saw it sail.
His visionary internationalist thinking and passionate drive, which by his own admission was a kind of madness, led Brunel to achieve feats that no engineer had dared think of before. But the man behind such achievements was also known for his formidable temper and endless cigar smoking.
In addition to exploring the SS Great Britain inside, outside and underneath (the hull, propeller and storm-battered anchor can be seen in the carefully managed conditions of the venue’s dry dock), visitors can now gain an insight into Brunel’s private and public persona in the new museum next door.
The lavish Shakespeare Room is the first area that visitors enter. This is a reconstruction of Brunel’s London apartment at 18 Duke Street. He bought it with the money earned from finishing the GWR – indeed, the splendid silver tableware on show was given to him as a gift for completing the railway line.
The room feels a little disconnected from the main museum space that it leads to, but nevertheless contains some interesting items. Paintings that depict Shakespeare’s plays (commissioned by Brunel) hang on the burgundy silk wallpapered walls, demonstrating the engineer’s taste for the arts. In the corner is Brunel’s regulator clock, which was made by the royal clockmaker Edward Dent in 1845, showing his love for precision.
There is also a digital interactive that challenges users to choose the right dinner guest to gain funding for different projects.
Brain waves
A striking eight-metre-tall 3D model of Brunel’s head with trademark cigar and stovepipe hat is the standout feature in the main museum space. The head, based on the 1857 photograph of Brunel standing in front of the launching chains of the SS Great Eastern, provides an effective hook on which to hang the rest of the displays.
In fact, visitors can walk up to the first floor and seemingly right into Brunel’s ear canal, directly into his brain, where they get a first-person audiovisual account of the engineer working on the Thames Tunnel, the injuries he sustained there, his convalescence in Bristol and resulting work on the GWR and Clifton Suspension Bridge. It’s a compelling multimedia experience that is enhanced with plumes of cigar smoke and steam, and an effective way of illustrating the challenges and human sacrifice inherent in such groundbreaking and dangerous engineering feats.
On both floors of the museum, Brunel’s personal items speak of what it was like to drive projects that shaped Britain and the rest of the world. For instance, his diary gives a frank account of his ambition and intertwined self-doubt, describing some plans as an “impossible dream”.
Other highlights include Brunel’s ivory ruler, wooden drawing tools, and a large leather cigar case with one remaining cigar, but space for 48 – a day’s supply for the engineer towards the end of his life, which ended in 1859 when he was just 53.
Many of the objects on show have been donated by the private collector Clive Richards and have never been on public display. The University of Bristol and the Brunel Institute provided a number of other works, including technical drawings.
Impressive detail
On leaving Brunel’s ear canal, visitors enter the Great Western Steamship Company’s dock office – a Grade II-listed building that has been restored as part of the project. The reconstruction was guided by a watercolour painting by Brunel’s niece, and is brought to life with an illustration mounted on Brunel’s plans office window giving a realistic view of what he would have seen of the dockyard outside. The attention to detail is impressive – there are even sound effects of a traumatised colleague that visitors hear from behind a locked door.
Merging traditional and modern curatorial features is what the institution excels at, and mannequins, smells, sounds and reconstructions are seamlessly integrated with state-of-the-art digital displays and interactives.
Among the standout exhibits is a 3D map animated with the engineer’s drawings of the route of the GWR between London and Bristol. This is an effective way of illustrating how Brunel and his workers overcame difficult terrain with masterful bridges and tunnels, changing the British landscape forever.
Visitors can also have a go at drawing a perfect circle while on board a shaking 1830s broad-gauge train carriage. Brunel used this technique to test the steadiness and quality of a railway line. We learn that he could draw a perfect circle when sat steadily, but that this is surprisingly hard to replicate in person, whether sat still or rocking from side to side.
For all its fun, exuberance and playfulness, the museum does not shy away from exploring the nitty-gritty of the theory behind Brunel’s projects, whether they were successful or not.
For instance, there are numerous panels and drawings clearly explaining his thinking behind projects such as the South Devon Atmospheric Railway, which used a vacuum in an iron pipe to propel a train along instead of a steam locomotive pulling it. The project failed because of the difficulties in keeping a strong and consistent vacuum.
Tales of triumphs and failures link well to the institution’s work with communities to inspire budding engineers, most significantly the Future Brunels programme, which aims to engage young people with Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.
Disappointingly, there is little detailed interpretation around the Clifton Suspension Bridge – an icon of Bristol – which remained unfinished for several years due to a lack of finance. It would have been useful to have more information on why it proved to be such a challenging project and how Brunel’s design differed from the final one created by Barlow and Hawkshaw (though it was based on Brunel’s design), which opened in 1864.
Overall, Being Brunel is an overwhelming success because, much like its subject, it strives to break new ground and pays painstaking attention to detail. It is also a great showcase for creative museum design.
Nicola Sullivan is a freelance writer
Focus on: interpretation
The idea for Being Brunel came from two sources. First, Brunel’s sketchbook relating to the Great Eastern ship, where he put all his ideas onto one page – from plans, sketches and notes to columns of figures. The second was the film Being John Malkovich, in which friends climb inside the actor’s head and see the world through his eyes. We wanted visitors to understand what characteristics and talents made Brunel extraordinary, so we rejected the traditional chronological approach. Instead, we use five zones that identify aspects of Brunel’s character – the Victorian, the engineer, the entrepreneur, the celebrity and the artist/designer. This approach enables us to paint the fullest possible picture of Brunel’s character. The subtleties of his personality that emerged during research helped us create a three-dimensional Brunel, complete with flaws, failures, attractive characteristics (he was the life and soul of the party) and less attractive ones (he snored).
The meta-learning objectives of the project were decided early on: what made Brunel, what did Brunel make and what does that mean for the modern world. Each zone was also given learning objectives. This made object selection and interactive design straightforward, and writing the interpretive text was almost painless.
SS Great Britain Trust’s interpretation philosophy is to start from where visitors are and then take them somewhere else. We needed to hook visitors into the story early on, and the eight-metre-high head of Brunel does just that – it stops visitors in their tracks, makes them smile and then lets them enjoy the heady mix of sights, sounds and smells.
Once they have met Brunel the man, they are ready to be fascinated by Brunel the engineer and his great steam ship next door.
Rhian Tritton is the deputy chief executive and the director of interpretation, collections and education of the SS Great Britain Trust, Bristol
Project data
Cost £7.26mMain funders Heritage Lottery Fund; Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; Clive & Sylvia Richards Charity; Wolfson Foundation; AIM Biffa Award; Being Brunel Corporate Club members
Architect Alec French Architects
Construction Beard
Exhibition and graphic design Easy Tiger Creative
Display cases Workhaus; Glasshaus
Interpretation Being Brunel Trust
Audiovisuals Centrescreen; Electrosonic; Elbow; Aivaf
Lighting Beard
Sculpture of Brunel Wild Creations
Bespoke furniture Warren Hughes
Fake fire Dimplex
Admission Adult £16.50; child (5-16) £9.50; under-fours free; concessions/students £14.50; family ticket £45; 50% discount for Museums Association members
