Richard Davies appointed as Brunel Museum’s new Chair of Trustees
Richard has been a trustee of the museum since 2021, and was subsequently elected Vice Chair. Richard will take over from current Chair of Trustees, Dana Skelley OBE, on 1 July 2023. Richard said, “I am delighted to be taking over as Chair from Dana. First and foremost, I wanted to pay tribute to Dana …
Brunel Museum signs up to Mayor of London’s Cool Spaces scheme
This summer, the Brunel Museum’s tunnel shaft is officially a ‘cool space’. For 2 days a week this summer, people can take respite from the heat in the Museum’s tunnel shaft. If the fan in your home office slash bedroom isn’t quite cutting it, you can book a coworking desk downstairs. The Museum has Wifi …
‘An exciting prospect!’: Departing Chair Dana Skelley reflects on an eventful three years!
What an exciting prospect! So it seemed, being taken on as Chair of the Trustees of the Brunel Museum in January 2020. I’d not long got married at a wonderful celebration in France in late September and set up my consultancy business having spent well over 30 years in public sector transport infrastructure development, construction …
Reimagining travel – again: Interview with Stay Grounded
The Brunels changed the way we travelled forever. Marc Brunel designed the worlds first tunelling shield laying the foundation for future tunnelling projects like HS2, Crossrail and the Channel tunnel. His son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel who learnt his craft on the Thames Tunnel project designed train lines that continue to cross cross the country today, …
Brunel Museum a Living Wage Champion!
The Brunel Museum has been shortlisted for a Living Wage Champion Award in the Industry Trailblazer Category. The Living Wage Champion Awards celebrate individuals and organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to the Living Wage movement. The Brunel Museum has been an accredited Living Wage employer since June 2021. Living Wage Employers commit to …
Tales of Teredo Navalis Family Exhibition extended to May half-term
Family exhibition, Tales of Teredo Navalis, is to be extended to May half-term, thanks to generous funding from the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. The exhibition shows how Marc Brunel was inspired by the Teredo Navalis, the humble shipworm, when designing the Tunnelling Shield that made the Thames Tunnel possible. The …
Helen Czerski on her new book, Blue Machine
Q: Who is Helen Czerski? Tell me a bit about yourself I’m a bit tricky to categorise – I’m a physicist who studies the ocean surface (breaking waves and bubbles), as an Associate Professor at University College London. But I’ve also been a regular science presenter on the BBC and YouTube channels for the past …
Mud, Flood and Fire – Brunel Museum secures funding to develop new schools show
Mud, Flood and Fire: Brunel Museum secures funding to develop new schools show The Brunel Museum has secured a grant from the Royal Society of Chemistry to create a brand new show for schools, called Mud, Flood and Fire. The show will use the experiences of the workers who dug the Thames Tunnel to teach …
“Some pretty thing to carry home as a remembrancer of the Thames Tunnel”
Today marks 180 years since the grand opening of the completed Thames Tunnel on 25th March 1843. As a Victorian tourist attraction it was a huge success, receiving fifty thousand visitors on its opening day. Visitors came from all over the world to marvel at the novelty of walking under a river and it became …
Nominate the Brunel Museum for the Family Friendly Museum Award!
Nominations are now open for the Kids in Museums Family Friendly Museum Award 2023. Each year Kids in Museums puts the power in families’ hands to crown the winner of its annual Family Friendly Museum Award. Now in its eighteenth year, the award recognises museums, galleries and heritage sites that go the extra mile to …