A blue plaque, like the many in London that mark the homes or workplaces of the famous and once-famous, has been installed in a spot where few will ever see it—on the walls of a railway tunnel being bored across London.
The plaque honors two of Britain’s greatest 19th-century engineers, Marc Isambard Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel, responsible between them for many important bridges, tunnels and railways. Marc Brunel, in fact, invented the tunnel boring shield that is being used to build the tunnel bearing the plaque.
The tunnel, which will eventually carry HS2’s high-speed trains from Old Oak Common in western London to Euston Station in the center. The plaque has been installed where the tunnel passes beneath Kensall Green Cemetery and the Brunel family tomb.
HS2 chief executive Mark Wild told reporters that their achievements “cannot be downplayed,” and said “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 Main Line.”
