Museum Review: Being Brunel at SS Great Britain

*gifted experience

Hey Owlets,

If you're from Bristol then you've probably heard that SS Great Britain (here's a review of the ship if you've not already visited!) has been building a new museum next to the ship. Named "Being Brunel" the museum lets people walk through his life, see where he lived and worked and everything that he created, and a few weeks ago I was invited to take a look on launch day.

I'll freely admit that me and museums don't perhaps go that well together. I have the attention span of a goldfish and that doesn't allow time to stop and read every sign and admire the finest details of an exhibit and I mainly accepted the invitation because I knew that Dad really wanted to take a look around. However, when Brunel himself shook my hand and welcomed me to his museum, I started to think I might enjoy this one (also, I think I wore the top hat with more flare!).

When you walk through the doors you find yourself in Brunel's dining room. I don't know about you, but even though it makes sense that he was a very rich man it never quite registered with me; I'd always imagined him to live in a warehouse surrounded by blueprints and half-built steam trains although clearly that couldn't be further from the truth. As I admired the decor, Brunel walked over and told me that one of his favourite things to do when he wasn't working was interior design. 

The silverware on the table was presented to Brunel by the Great Western Railway Company on completion of the railway, and cost over £1 million in today's money!

From the dining room you step into something that feels like Brunel's warehouse which showcases some of his best known - and little known - projects. I loved this space because it satisfied both my short attention span and Dad's love of reading absolutely everything - as well as the traditional plaques on the wall there were a lot of interactive exhibitions like the train carriage from when Brunel created a broad gauge railway track (which was later replaced by the narrower gage that's used across the country today) and you could even see the map of the railway being drawn across the landscape. 

Once we'd looked around the room we were both happy and thought that was the end of the museum but it was far from it. Upstairs we saw a sign to step inside Brunel's mind. I'll be honest with you - I absolutely hated it - next time I would look to see if you could get to the next part without going in here! You step inside a dark room and images are projected all around you. In front Brunel's memories are playing and it's like they're your own thoughts. It's made even more realistic when you're caught off guard by steam blasting from all around you when you see a steam train. While all of this was great, it was the part of the film where the Clifton Suspension Bridge was being built that I couldn't stomach. Heights are not my thing at all - I can't cope with anything remotely high and the film was so realistic that it felt like I was dangling over the gorge myself, to the point that I had to look away until it had finished.

Photo: Heather Cowper

When the film finishes, the door to his office opens behind you and you're greeted by Brunel's assistant, Mr Bennett, who invites you to pick up anything you see, open plans and read through his books. The calmness after the intensity of being in Brunel's mind was a great contrast, and to be told in a museum that you can touch everything was a strange feeling, but I made use of it by sitting in his office chair and reading through some of his paperwork. Speaking to Mr Bennett meant I learnt a lot more than if I had been left to read through things in the usual stoney silence of a museum because I was able to ask questions about the things that interested me, and he knew the answers to even my most obscure questions. Speaking to him, Mr Bennett said that he would be there at weekends to start with, and hopefully all week during summer.

As you walk through the rooms you see more workspaces, where again you can pick up and read through everything. For someone who doesn't really do museums, I absolutely loved spending the morning here. I felt like I learnt so much even though I didn't feel like I'd read anything - being able to speak to characters from Brunel's life and look through his papers made it much easier to absorb the information. In the final room you walk in on an argument of whether propellers should be used on the latest ship design - you hear both sides and then you vote by walking through a sensor, after which you find yourself back outside.

One thing that shocked me was the amount of material that managed to survive to be put into the museum. While speaking to one of the members of staff he pointed out that we barely know anything about people in Brunel's era, and it's only because he kept a diary that we know so much about him. During his life he had become a celebrity for some of his ambitious projects, and in his diary he mentioned how much he hated that. As well as his diary, many other things have somehow survived- my favourite things to look at were these "peep shows", made from paper to commemorate his achievements.

While I wasn't initially sure what to expect, I absolutely loved the museum and I was surprised by how much I had learnt without trying, just because I was genuinely interested and enjoying myself. Growing up I've always enjoyed visiting the ship, but it had become too familiar. I would usually recommend that people visiting Bristol make time to see the ship as I assume that most people that live in the city have seen it, but even if you live in Bristol I can guarantee you will learn something visiting the Being Brunel Museum. It's included in your ticket to see the ship and it's well worth a visit.

Love and Feathers, 

 The Owlet 💜 

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