A new national museum celebrating the life and legacy of Isambard Kingdom Brunel will open in Bristol in spring 2018.
Called Being Brunel, the dedicated museum, adjacent to Brunel’s famous ship SS Great Britain, will see the celebrated engineer brought to life with never-before-seen personal possessions, documents and artefacts.
The project will consist of a major redevelopment of derelict 20th century buildings beside Bristol’s Floating Harbour.
Being Brunel will recreate the interiors of Brunel’s London office and the Great Western Steamship Company’s Bristol office, set within the Grade II-listed Dock Office building which has been structurally restored as part of the project.
Visitors will discover that Brunel was not only an outstanding engineer, but an entrepreneur, a designer, an art lover and a showman too.
Objects going on public display for the first time include an 1821 school report from Brunel’s childhood, and the large bell from the Great Western, his first great ship.
Visitors will be able to compare their own drawing skills to Brunel’s in a range of interactive exhibits, including boarding a broad gauge railway carriage which sways and vibrates as it ‘travels’. Once on board, passengers can try out Brunel’s rule of thumb for testing the evenness of a railway route: sketching circles by hand sitting in a moving train.
Being Brunel is expected to open at the end of March 2018.
