If you remember the movie Being John Malkovich, you’ll understand why Bristol’s brand-new harborside museum is called Being Brunel. It takes visitors inside the head of Victorian Britain’s greatest engineer to see the world from his point of view.
The head, eight metres high including stovepipe hat and cigar, invites visitors to walk inside the mind of the man responsible for some of Britain’s greatest bridges, ships and tunnels. That includes the original SS Great Britain, largest steamship of its time, which is moored next door to the museum.
The museum’s six galleries contain many artifacts of his career, including models, photographs, sketchbooks, personal items, a reconstruction of his office, and his personal cigar box, retrieved from his London club.
