Brunel Museum
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The Brunel Engine House is a building in Rotherhithe, South East London. It was designed by Sir Marc Isambard Brunel to be part of the infrastructure of the Thames Tunnel. The engine house held steam-powered pumps used to extract water from the tunnel.
Further structural decay was prevented in 1975 by a charitable trust named Brunel Exhibition Rotherhithe. The building now contains a museum displaying information on the construction of the tunnel and the other projects by Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Much work has been done on the site recently including a new mural on the shaft showing the tunnel shield and models of famous Brunel bridges incorporated into bench seating.
[edit] Change of Name
In 2006 the museum changed its name from Brunel Engine House to Brunel Museum and has since started to expand its exhibition to include other works by the Brunels.
[edit] Open House Weekend
The Brunel Museum takes part in the Open House Weekend event every year and, until the East London Line temporary closure in 2007, took parties of people through the tunnel on the Underground trains as part of a guided tour of the tunnel.
[edit] The Future
The museum underwent major building works in 2007. This entailed removing the Rennie flat V steam engine (now to be found at Chatham Historic Dockyard) to create a larger exhibition space, a cafe and improved toilet facilities. With the closure of the East London Line in December 2007 for extensive upgrading the museum is hoping that the access shaft into the tunnel will be capped with a shelf at the bottom above the level of the trains. This will create a large new exhibition space for a large expansion of the museum. Transport for London are currently looking into the engineering works required and how they can be integrated with the East London Line refurbishment.
