No Small Wander

Sometimes, humanity’s greatest achievements are pretty gross.

My partner and I were looking for a fun way to spend a rainy afternoon, and landed on the Brunel Museum. This small, out-of-the-way museum that’s south of the river in Rotherhithe. Its focus is engineering/architecture. This, I’ll admit, isn’t my forte; I can get excited about a piece of art much easier than a piece of machinery.

But living in London, I forget sometimes how much history happened here. The Brunel Museum catalogues the journey that London’s workers engineers took to make the first-ever underwater tunnel. It’s called the Thames Tunnel, and although it’s no longer in use, it was foundational to the way Londoners moved through the city for centuries.

What Does The Brunel Museum Cover?

Marc Brunel was a French-born engineer who lived in the 1700 and 1800s. He travelled internationally, making a name for himself as an engineer. Brunel became the Chief Engineer of New York City in 1796, and a few years later moved to London to marry. He started working on the Thames Tunnel in 1825.

Back then bridges were common—there had never been an underground tunnel that could take people from one side of the river to another. The tunnel’s vision was accessibility for everyone, not just the rich and well-connected. It sought to make the journey across the river easy and accessible, by foot and by horse.

But remember when I said it was gross? I wasn’t lying. Not only did people die, but the work itself involved flooding of the Thames river, which was basically London’s latrine at that point in history. Hosting parties for high society was part of the vision for this tunnel, even though the build risked flooding by faeces and urine at any moment. Ew.

The museum has two sections; the first is a really cool tunnel shaft. As you descend, a documentary about the build plays. This highlights the significance of the tunnel and its place in history.

The second building shows an exhibit that explains the mechanics behind this major feat of architecture. The provided timeline documenting the 20-year build helped me understand how many stops-and-starts there were for this project.

When I visited the tunnel shaft with my partner, I mentioned a term I’d be hearing recently—ego death. It’s the idea that sometimes we can go to a place so breathtaking in its size or beauty that we temporarily lose the feeling that we’re important. Something in us recognises that we’re part of a bigger, brighter world.

I imagined the first people to set foot in the tunnel. What would they be thinking and feeling, stepping somewhere no one had gone before? Would they be wondering if the tunnel would fill and flood at any moment? Surely they would have felt the wonder of this tunnel all around them. On opening day over 50,000 people paid a penny to walk through it, and within the first 3 months of opening, over a million visitors had used it. People flocked to this place, and it’s hard not to imagine that they’d be full of shock and awe.

My partner said that he felt that probably, the opposite of ego death might have occurred. The architect imagined something that no one believed was possible. Being the first in the world to make it happen, would have felt powerful—almost god-like.

The tunnel isn’t in use today, so it’s hard to imagine what walking the tunnel would have been like. But the impact it had on London architecture, and life in the 1800s, is clear. This museum is well worth a visit if you’re south of the river and looking for an experience where you get to step into a piece of London’s architectural history.

The Brunel Museum is open 10:30am–3:30pm, Friday–Monday. Tickets range from £1.50–£10, based on age, gift aid, and whether you’re a local. You can find more information on the Brunel Musem website.