Exploring Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s London

Exploring Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s London

[Music]
hello and thanks for stopping
by ismad Kingdom Brunell was by far one
of the greatest Engineers of the 19th
century if not all time a ferocious
workaholic who in a relatively short
period of time masterminded everything
from ships and Railways to docks
stations tunnels Bridges and
more although he was well traveled and
his projects were widespread brw Nell
maintained a close association with
London throughout his life and in this
video I’d like to take you on a special
tour of the various sides around the
city with which both he and his family
are associated
[Music]
isard was a remarkable figure and his
parents Mark Brunell and Sophia Kingdom
were equally
exceptional Sophia was born in Plymouth
and she met Mark whilst working as a
govern in the French city of Ron
the pair fell in love but unfortunately
there was turmoil on the horizon in the
late 1780s the French Revolution erupted
and Mark being an Ardent royalist rather
foolishly chose to denounce one of its
main instigators in
public such descent was potentially
deadly and it’s left Mark with little
choice but to flee to
America so feia remained in France but
when the revolution’s reign of terror
followed soon after she too found
herself in grave danger being English
she was accused of being a spy and spent
some 18 months in prison the threat of
the guillotine ever
present fortunately Sophia was
eventually spared and in 1795 she made
her way to
[Music]
London in the United States meanwhile
Mark Brunell being an accomplished
engineer had risen to become New York
City’s chief engineer
he’d never forgotten Sophia though and
after making contact with one of her
brothers he headed to London for an
emotional reunion at a pre-arranged
venue that location being somerset’s
house after rekindling their
relationship Mark and Sophia were
married at St Andrew’s Church Halburn on
the 1st of November
1799 not long after they relocated to
Portsmouth and it was here on Britain
Street eat that their children were born
two daughters Sophia and Emma followed
by baby ismad who entered the world just
before 1 a.m. on the 9th of April
1806 as a Young Man Mark Brunell had
served in the French navy and now in
Portsmouth he began working with the
Royal Navy establishing a factory for
the mass production of wooden py blocks
thousands of which were required for
their ships every
year then not long after Renard was born
Mark invested in a new Venture a sawmill
in baty which was located beside the
temps just west of battery
bridge to oversee this Enterprise the
Brunell family moved to London setting
up home on the opposite side of the
river just across from The Sawmill at 4
d which is now part of Cheney
walk isard spent much of his early
childhood here and today his old home is
marked with a blue plaque although sadly
due to a high solid gate it’s very
difficult to
see life ticked along nicely for a good
few years but then on the night of the
30th of August 1814 disaster struck when
Mark’s bsy Sawmill was gutted by fire
this hit the brunell’s finances hard and
before long Mark found himself throned
in the king’s bench prison for
debt the king’s bench was located close
to Marshal prison where Charles
dickens’s father was also locked up for
debt the approximate location being
where the Scoville estate is now
located although she wasn’t required to
Sophia insisted on moving into the
king’s bench prison with her husband in
a letter to his friend Dr Williston Mar
confessed that the incredible fortitude
displayed by his wife was the only thing
which kept him going through this dark
period fortunately ismad who would have
been in his mid teens at this time
didn’t bear witness to his parents
suffering he was in Paris where already
armed with a sound understanding of
geometry and Technical drawing which had
been imparted to him by his father he
was studying under Abraham Louie briay a
man regarded at the time as being the
world’s finest maker of watches and
scientific
instruments Louie who by this point was
in his mid-70s was highly impressed with
isod and wrote to Mark to say so indeed
it’s been speculated that during the
period ismb Bar’s parents were in the
D’s prison Louie recognizing his
people’s incredible Talent May well have
provided some level of financial support
to help their son get by
[Music]
whilst locked up in the king’s bench
prison Mark Brunell began scouting for
work he needed to earn money after all
if he was going to secure his freedom
and so decided to offer his engineering
skills to Alexander the of Russia when
the authority said of this though they
realized it to be foolish to allow such
a talented fellow to be poached by thear
and so the British government agreed to
settle Mark’s debt of £5,000 which would
be over 525,000 in today’s money on the
condition that he ditched any notion of
going to
Russia after being released Mark
established a small office in the heart
of London’s Financial District at 29
poultry and when isombard returned from
France in 1822 he devoted time to
working here with his father and
devouring more technical knowledge at
the workshop of Henry molley which was
located on Westminster Bridge Road
roughly where Lambeth North Tube Station
now stands Harry being a friend of the
Brunel and one of the industrial
revolution’s most important tool
makers then from his office on poultry
Mark Brunell began tting a bold
idea he wanted to build a tunnel beneath
the Temps
although no tunnel existed beneath any
river in the world at that time the idea
of borrowing one beneath the temps
wasn’t a new one for such a connection
providing a direct link between London’s
docks had been long
desired an early tunneling attempt had
been made by the great Pioneer of steam
Richard jic at the turn of the 19th
century although he and his team had
found the sludgy ground impossible to
work
with Mark Brunell however had Ed up an
ingenious solution a large Contraption
he patented called a tunneling Shield
which would allow workers to gradually
push their way through the
Earth Mark’s concept remains in use
today indeed when crossrail now the
Elizabeth line was being constructed one
of the tunneling machines was christened
Sophia in honor of his
wife works swung into Motion in 1824
when the temps tunnel company was
founded and Mark’s tunneling Shield was
constructed at Henry mle’s
Workshop although still only in his
early 20s isombard was already
considered capable enough to act as his
father’s assistant and it was a role he
devoted all of his energy to often
spending countless hours at a time below
ground today the temp’s tunnel is still
in use it carries the London overground
between whopping and Rive and just a
short walk away from Rive station you’ll
find the Brunell Museum
the museum is based within two historic
structures those being The Engine House
which was designed by Mark Brunell to
accommodate pumps for extracting water
from the
tunnel and the temps tunnel shaft a
cavernous 50ft deep structure which was
sunk into the ground in
1825 while standing here you can hit a
rumble of trains passing close
[Music]
by it’s from this shaft that’s the
tunneling
commenced work on digging the temp’s
tunnel proved to be slow and Incredibly
dangerous grafting by candle light the
workers many of who were skilled Miners
and brick layers toiled in hideous
conditions with the heavily polluted
water of the temps which at that time
remember was little more than an open
sewer dripping down and causing regular
buildups of methane gas the presence of
which resulted in much illness
on the 18th of May 1827 the tunnel’s
roof was breached leading water to gush
in and within just a few hours ismad was
already carrying out repairs being
lowered to and from the riverbed in a
diving bell from which he dump bags of
clay into the
cavity however on the 12th of January
1828 the temps burst in again and this
time it was far more serious six men
were killed in a deluge and isenbart
himself nearly lost his life by she
Fortune he was pulled free from the
torrent after his desperate bangs were
heard on a door leading to The
Works in the wake of This Disaster the
project was shut down for some time and
the tunnel would not be completed for
another 15 years it finally opened in
[Music]
1843 in the meantime isard Kingdom
Brunell moved on to other
[Music]
projects when he had been given the
go-ahead to begin building the temps
tunnel Mark Brunell wanted to be closer
to the work site and so had moved the
family to 30 New Bridge Street also
known as Bridge house which would have
been close to where the black fry pub
now
stands in the second terrifying reach of
the tunnel ismad had suffered serious
injuries both internally and to his leg
and so much to his frustration He was
ordered to rest for several
months part of this recuperation took
place at a bridge house and whilst laid
up there he described his brush with
death in his
diary I Shan forget that day in a hurry
the Roar of the rushing water in a
confined passage and by its velocity
rushing past the opening was Grand very
Grand I can’t compare it to anything
Cannon can be nothing to
it during this period of Rehabilitation
isbd also spent time in Bristol which by
coincidence happened to be at a time
when a competition was being held to
find a design for a bridge to span the
Aven Gorge needless to say he entered
several designs and after after numerous
ups and downs his beautiful Vision the
Clifton suspension bridge eventually
came to fruition although sadly it would
not be completed until after isard’s
death this association with Bristol also
led to isard Kingdom brunell’s first
true
Masterpiece the Great Western
[Music]
Railway is Ard was 25 years old when he
took his very first train ride a trip in
1831 on the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway which despite being a pioneering
line he wasn’t overly impressed with for
he found the ride to be rough and bumpy
as demonstrated by these circles which
he attempted to sketch whilst rattling
along however writing in his diary soon
after he stated the time is not far off
when we shall be able to take our coffee
and write while water going noiseless
and smoothly at 45
mph let me
try isard didn’t have to wait long for
his chance on the 21st of January 1833
the newly formed Great Western Railway
company appointed him the chief engineer
on the ambitious new project that being
the construction of a railway between
Bristol and
London once set at a mammoth task the
26-year-old set out a alone in a horse
and cart to survey the entire route his
goal being to make the line as smooth
and level as
possible as with most of his projects
the story of the Great Western is an
epic one and so as we looking at is
ard’s London connections we’ll
concentrate for now on the features
which is specific to the
capital first is the war Cliff Viaduct
which carries the line through eing
between the stations at hanwell and
South
built between 1836 and 1837 this was the
first such of Viaduct to be completed on
the Great Western and so can be
considered to be Isen bod’s first truly
complete
work the viaduct was named in honor of
Lord War Cliffe who’ helped guide the
great Weston’s Bill through Parliament
you can see his Crest emblazened upon
the South
Side the viaduct which stretches for 800
196 ft and standard 81 ft tall was
designed both to cross the river Brent
and keep the tracks as level as
possible it was such attention to detail
that resulted in the Great Western
earning the nickname brunell’s Bard
table close to the viaduct on Oxbridge
Road there’s a pub called the
viaduct when it’s first opened in the
1730s The Tavern was known as the
coaching horses but it changed its name
to Mark the failing of Brunell structure
in around
1838 whilst we’re in Ealing it’s worth
taking a quick DeTour for ol War Cliff
VOD duct was isard’s first complete
Railway structure his last Railway
project can be seen just 20 minutes away
at a spot on Windmill Lane called Three
Bridges Three Bridges is comprised of
well Three
Bridges ismar designed this Compact and
complex intersection as a means of
carrying both Windmill Lane and the
Grand Union Canal over a new Great
Western Branch line leading to brenford
dock Three Bridges was completed in 1859
the year Brunell died
[Music]
the London Terminus of the Great Western
Railway is of course Paddington where
you can find a seated statue of ismad
holding pride of place between platforms
8 and
9 Paddington is a magnificent station
although when it first opened in June
1838 it was a rather more makeshift
Affair in those days it was located
further back the ticket office and
waiting room being tucked away in a set
of stone arches beneath the old Bishop’s
bridge this was a temporary setup of
course Brunel had always wanted in his
own words a grand terminal after my own
fancy one that would match the Splendor
of Bristol’s Temple
Ms when it came to designing the current
Incarnation which dates from 1854 ismad
took a lot of inspiration from the then
recently built Crystal Palace and as
such the platform sit beneath a vast
glass
roof there’s another Crystal Palace
connection with
ismad when the glass monolith was
relocated from Hy Park to sdam he
designed the two huge water towers which
were required to power the many
fountains dotted around the
park years later the television Pioneer
John Loy bed used brunel’s southwater
Tower to conduct broadcast experiments
and when the Crystal Palace was
destroyed by fire in 1936 both Towers
managed to
survive sadly though they were pulled
down just a few years later for when
World War II broke out it was feared
that the lwfa would use them as
navigational points when bombing
London today only the old crumbling
bases
remain you can see the north base on Old
couble Lane and to the South one on
annaly Hill tucked behind the Crystal
Palace Museum
[Music]
another of isard’s lost London landmarks
is the hunger food suspension bridge a
pedestrian Crossing which is built
across the temps between 1841 and
1845 the bridge connected the now
vanished Hungerford Market to beler Road
pretty much following the same path as
the present day gold and Jubilee Bridges
which flank either side of Hungerford
Railway
Bridge isard’s Bridge which as seen here
was once sketched by the American Artist
James Whistler was dismantled in 1863 to
make way for the line into Ching
cross although having said that you can
still see remnants of it the chains were
sent to Bristol for use in brunell’s
Clifton suspension
bridge there are two other Brunell
connections to be found around here
first is this statue of the great
engineer which can be found on a corner
of Victoria embankment and Temple
Place the statue was commissioned in
1860 just a few months after isard’s
death and was sculpted by the Italian
artist Carlo
maretti when first installed it was
looking directly towards Hungerford
suspension bridge how be it with the old
waterly origin way although as we’ve
just seen that’s landmarks long since
gone
the second connection is the old war
office which once stood on huard’s
Avenue it was here in February 1855 that
isard was invited to a meeting in which
he was asked if he could design a large
pre-fabricated Hospital the idea being
that it would be erected in darell to
treat soldiers who’ been injured in the
Crimean
War ismad obliged and and after
Consulting with Florence Nightingale on
the kind of facilities that to be
required he completed the design in just
6
days the hospital a prototype ward of
which was constructed in a Great Western
Railway yard at Paddington was made in
kit form in Gloucester before being
shipped out to Turkey specifically ranko
near Istanbul where the components were
quickly and simply slotted
together in its short life isard’s
Hospital treated some 1,400 patience
both military and
[Music]
civilian if Railways Bridges tunnels and
hospitals weren’t enough isard Kingdom
Brunell also built three ships Each of
which were record- breakingly
big his first was the SS Great Western
the inspiration for which appears to
have come to his B during a meeting of
the Great Western Railways directors
which was held at the now lost Radley’s
Hotel on New Bridge Street black frers
close to her as seen earlier the Brunell
family used to
live at this meeting which was held in
October
1835 one attendee was marveling at just
how long the route between Bristol and
London was going to be when ismad piped
up to say why not make it longer and
have a steamboat go from Bristol to New
York and call it the great Weston
at first the directors assumed he was
joking but isn’t bod was serious and so
after some consideration they gave him
the go-ahead meaning just like that he’d
pretty much created the first fast well
fast for the time direct regular route
between London and New York a very early
sort of Heath row to JFK if you
will the SS Great Western was launched
in 1838 for followed in 1845 by the SS
Great Britain which was then the world’s
largest passenger ship a vessel capable
of crossing the Atlantic in 14
days isard’s third ship however would
prove to be far more
problematic having revolutionized
transatlantic travel he now turned his
attention to doing the same between
Britain and Australia envisioning a
mighty vessel that could make the trip
down under
nonstop after his design which being six
times larger than any ship of float at
the time isn’t B described as a floating
city his idea was taken up by the Great
Eastern steam navigation company who
gave construction to
goahead work on the gargantuan iron ship
initially called the Leviathan Alo
Brunell himself affectionately referred
to it as his great babe commenced on the
1st of May 1854 in the shipyard of Scott
russling Co of mwell which was located
alongside West FY road on the Southwest
Western tip of the ol of
dogs it was at this site in 1857 that’s
the iconic photograph of isbal Kingdom
prenell complete with cigar stovepipe
hat and hands cockily thrust into his
pockets was taken the engineer posing
before the ship’s Mighty launch
chains work on the leithan however
proved to be nothing short of a
nightmare after financial difficulties
quickly mounted Construction ceased for
a year the project was then taken over
by the Great Eastern ship company who
renamed the vessel the SS Great
Eastern after countless headaches the SS
great Easton was finally set to be
launched on the 3rd of November
1857 and you can still see remains of
the launch ramp alongside napia
Avenue at 12,000 tons the ship
represented the heaviest ever object
physically moved by man and
unsurprisingly thousands of Spectators
turned up to watch the herculian effort
but when the moment came the huge winch
handle span out of control sending one
worker hurtling through the air he’d
later die of his injuries and the
immense hole became jammed the ship
remained stranded on the ramp until the
30th of January 1858 when aided by
numerous Rams and hydraulic presses it
finally lurched into the temps after
which it was mored off of depth for
fitting
out I have never embarked on any one
thing to which I have so entirely
devoted myself is in B said of his great
baby and to which I have devoted so much
time thought and labor on the success of
which I have staked so much
reputation to hear him speak in such a
way is heartbreaking for even after the
SS Great Eastern had been floated its
hemorrhaged money and the immense stress
of the project led to a rapid decline in
isard’s health
as the Autumn of 1859 approached though
the ship was almost ready for its maiden
voyage a pled trip to New York and on
the 5th of September isard whose cabin
had already been prepared made a final
inspection of his baby this photograph
of him was taken on board at around
midday and it would prove to be the last
ever for a just moments after the flash
bulb popped ismad suffered the stroke
and collapsed on Deck
[Music]
following his stroke ismad was rushed to
his home at 18 Duke Street and now lost
road which has been swallowed up by
government buildings it was located
where the treasury building now stands
parallel to horse guard’s Road and close
to where the entrance to the church or
War rooms can be
[Music]
found Juke streets where isombard had
lived with his wife Mary and their three
children since 1848 was also only a
minute or so away from the former
Prospect Place a house of what’s now old
Queen Street which overlooked St James’s
park it was here that Isen bad’s parents
had lived his father passing away in
1849 and his mother In
1855 2 days after his collapse the SS
great Easter departed without his Ard on
board although as partially paralyzed in
bed he was given regular updates hearing
how the public were cheering his mighty
ship
along but then just off of the coast of
Hastings disaster struck when an
explosion rocked one of the boilers
killing six
firemen the news was reluctantly relayed
to hism bod and this final craw blow was
too much to bear 8 days later on the
15th of September 1859 the great man
passed away he was
53 on the 15th of September I lost my
oldest and best friend wrote fellow
engineer Daniel G soon after by his
death the greatest of England’s
Engineers was lost the man with the
greatest originality of thought and
power of execution bold in his plans but
right the commercial World thought him
extravagant but although he was so great
things are not done by those who sit
down and count the cost of every thought
or
act Daniel G would later go on to
oversee the laying of the first
successful transatlantic Telegraph cable
between Britain and America a task he
achieved using his old friend’s troubled
ship the SS great
Easter isombard was buried alongside his
parents Mark and Sophia in kenel Green
[Music]
Cemetery you can still see the family
plot today in the middle of this quiet
un in path which rather fittingly lies
just north of the tracks of the Great
Western Railway
[Music]
thank you so much for watching I hope
you enjoyed this tour of the numerous
sites in London associated with the
Brunell family and would love to hear
your own thoughts on ismad which of his
many projects is your favorite please be
sure to let me know in the
comments if you haven’t yet subscribed
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content anyway on that note thanks again
for watching friends stay well and
please be sure to stay tuned
[Music]

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was, by far, one of the greatest engineers of the 19th century- if not all time- and throughout his life, he maintained a close association with London.

In this video, we’ll be exploring the sites in the capital associated with Brunel, including family homes, worksites, long lost landmarks and more…

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:06 Somerset House & Holborn
03:13 Chelsea & The King’s Bench
06:00 Poultry & Lambeth
07:24 The Thames Tunnel
11:05 Blackfriars
12:52 The Great Western Railway (Wharncliffe Viaduct & Three Bridges)
16:26 Paddington & Crystal Palace
18:33 Westminster (Hungerford Bridge, Brunel’s Statue & The War Office)
21:03 The SS Great Eastern
25:59 St James’s Park & Kensal Green Cemetery
28:59 Outro

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Links for this video:

Somerset House
https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/

St Andrew’s Holborn
https://www.standrewholborn.org.uk/

The Brunel Museum

Homepage

The Viaduct Pub
https://www.viaduct-hanwell.co.uk

The Crystal Palace Museum

Squircle

The SS Great Britain Museum

Home

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Thanks again for watching, friends. Stay well, and please be sure to stay tuned!

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Credits

Footage & Images:

Great Western Broad Gauge, 1892: didcotrailwaycentre.co.uk

Great Western Railway channel (Bristol to London) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SfwsH8QIrs

Clifton Suspension Bridge footage: BBC

Britain Street: www.portsmouth.co.uk

Wooden Pulley Block (Joe Ross): https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeross/47222112991

Louis Breguet watch: Michael Vainshtein (Creative Commons)

Crossrail Tunnelling Machine: Crossrail Project Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e-PW3QlJQY&t=268s

Avon Gorge: RichTea

1830 Railway Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDEnsraYx3k

Brunel 1848 portrait: Science Museum

openstreetmap.org

David Rumsey Maps

Brunel University Statue: Matt Brown (Creative Commons)

Hungerford Suspension Bridge 1845: met museum.org (Public Domain)

Whistler Sketch: Royal Museums Greenwich

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Sound Effects (all via Freesound.org):

Angry Crowd: mrrap4food

Guillotine: jameswrowles

Coughing: Joedeshon freesound

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Music:

Danse Macabre – Isolated Harp by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://freepd.com/Classical/Danse%20Macabre%20-%20Isolated%20Harp

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

In Memory of Jean Talon (Mini Vandals)

Sonatina No 2 in F Major Rondo

Allemande, Wahneta Meixsell

Prelude No. 12 by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/preludes/

Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/

Boreal, Asher Fulero

Fractal of Light (Chris Haugen)

Bluesy Vibes (Sting), Doux Maxwell/Media Right Productions

No. 9 Esther’s Waltz (Esther Abrami)

Sound Effects:

Vaquero Perdido (Mini Vandals)

Life in Romance by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

No. 6 In My Dreams (Esther Abrami)

The Thought of You (TrackTribe)

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