HS2 installs a plaque 40 metres below London to celebrate the Brunels’ engineering legacy
↓ Skip to Main Content
Toggle mobile navigation menu
Home
What's on in London
London Today
London Tomorrow
London this Weekend
London Theatre
What's on in August 2026
What's on in September 2026
What's on in October 2026
What's on in November 2026
Add an Event
London News
Latest news
Architecture
Art
Book reviews
Churches
Day trips from London
Food and drink
History
Exhibitions
London Theatre
Alleys and passages
Pocket parks
Museums
London Transport News
London Tickets
Free Newsletter
Contact Me
HS2 installs a plaque 40 metres below London to celebrate the Brunels’ engineering legacy
Published on 10th August 2026 by Ian Mansfield in Transport News
A heritage plaque has been installed inside an HS2 tunnel 40 metres below London, marking the point where the new high-speed railway passes beneath the tomb of one of Britain’s most famous engineering families.
HS2 CEO Mark Wild and Director of the Brunel Museum install a plaque in the Euston Tunnel (c) HS2<br>The plaque has been fixed to the wall of the Euston Tunnel just as it passes beneath Kensal Green Cemetery, where Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and his son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, are buried.
It is a particularly fitting location, as Sir Marc invented the tunnelling shield that paved the way for modern tunnel-boring machines now used to construct HS2’s tunnels. Sir Marc patented his rectangular tunnelling shield in 1818, drawing inspiration from the way shipworms bore through timber. The invention was subsequently used to excavate the Thames Tunnel beneath the river, work on which began at the end of 1825.
When it opened, the Thames Tunnel became the world’s first tunnel constructed beneath a navigable river and demonstrated a technique that would transform underground construction. More than two centuries later, the tunnel-boring machines digging the HS2 railway tunnels use modern tunnelling shields based on the same fundamental principle pioneered by Brunel.
His son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, went on to become one of the most celebrated engineers of the Victorian era and was responsible for numerous major railway projects.
Among them was Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway between Chippenham and Bath. Considered an exceptionally ambitious and dangerous undertaking when it was built, the tunnel was the longest railway tunnel in the world when it opened and remains one of Brunel’s best-known engineering achievements.
The HS2 plaque now creates an unusual link between generations of tunnelling technology — with the railway being excavated deep beneath the final resting place of the engineer whose invention helped make such tunnels possible.
(c) HS2<br>Mark Wild, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and HS2’s CEO, said: “The significance of the achievements of both Sir Marc and Isambard Brunel in engineering cannot be under played. How we build our tunnels today is because of Sir Marc’s work, and how we build our railways is because of how Isambard Brunel built the Great Western Mainline. He built railways flat and straight, and future-proofed them for improvements in speed and capacity which is why we still use them today.
“Installing this plaque gives me the opportunity to reflect on the scale of what the 30,000 strong workforce on HS2 are building – a new railway for future generations that will stand the test of time, despite all the challenges we face.”
The two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) began their journeys towards Euston station at the start of 2026 after the Government committed to delivering HS2 all the way into the heart of London. The 4.5-mile route will be completed next year, with the TBMs finishing underground just outside the site of the new HS2 station.
Your correspondent also visited a few weeks ago – above ground.
Tagged with HS2 Railway, kensal green
Make us preferred on Google
SUPPORT THIS WEBSITE
This website has been running now for over a decade, and while advertising revenue contributes to funding the website, it doesn't cover the costs. That is why I have set up a facility with DonorBox where you can contribute to the costs of the website and time invested in writing and research for the news articles.
It's very similar to the way The Guardian and many smaller websites are now seeking to generate an income in the face of rising costs and declining advertising.
Whether it's a one-off donation or a regular giver, every additional support goes a long way to covering the running costs of this website, and keeping you regularly topped up doses of Londony news and facts.
If you like what you read on here, then please support the website here .
Thank you
6 Comments on “HS2 installs a plaque 40 metres below London to celebrate the Brunels’ engineering legacy”
Rectangular shield? All pictures I recall seeing of his original dig under the Thames show it circular as you would...