The 1840s and 1850s

Brunel worked long hours and was frequently away on business, but still found time to entertain his children with nursery games and conjuring. In 1843, he accidentally swallowed a half-sovereign he was using in one of his tricks. It lodged in his windpipe and threatened to choke him to death. A tracheotomy was performed by a leading surgeon with two-foot long forceps but was unsuccessful. Showing his ingenuity and sang-froid, Brunel devised a board, pivoted between two uprights, to which he was strapped and rapidly turned head over heels. The centrifugal force dislodged the coin, which dropped from his mouth.

In 1850, Brunel became involved in preparations for the Great
Exhibition of Science and Industry of All Nations to be held in Hyde Park the following year. He contributed to early designs for an exhibition space and in the arrangements for the opening parade. When Paxton’s Crystal Palace was relocated to Sydenham, Brunel designed two water towers for the site. (Read more about the Great Exhibition on the Arts and Culture page).

In 1853, work began on Brunel’s biggest maritime project: the ss Great Eastern. (Read more about the ship on the Major Projects page). At the same time, Brunel was also supervising the construction of another of his engineering triumphs, the Royal Albert Bridge which carried the Cornwall Railway line over the Tamar at Saltash. This was completed in 1859.

In February 1855, Brunel was invited by the Permanent Under
Secretary at the War Office, Sir Benjamin Hawes (husband of his sister Sophia), to design a pre-fabricated hospital for use in the Crimea that could be built in Britain and shipped out for speedy erection at a chosen site. The design took six days to complete and the parts reached Renkioi in the Dardanelles in May that year. By July it was ready to admit its first 300 patients and by December had reached its capacity of 1,000 beds.

On his doctor’s advice, Brunel travelled to the Alps, Vichy and Egypt during 1858. He was suffering from Bright’s disease and had endured years of physical and mental strain. On Christmas Day he dined in Cairo with Robert Stephenson, his old friend and colleague, who had similarly ruined his health through overwork. Despite deriving some initial benefit from the change of scene, when Brunel returned to Britain the stress associated with the ss Great Eastern project intensified and he collapsed with a stroke on 5 September 1859. He died at his Westminster home ten days later.



Architect’s drawing of Brunel’s proposed home on his Watcombe estate
(University of Bristol)


Brunel was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery on 20 September 1859. The route to the cemetery was lined with thousands of railwaymen and members of the public. His friend and colleague Daniel Gooch wrote in his diary:

I lost my oldest and best friend... 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 and act.