Brunel University London
Brunel received its charter in 1966 — one of the 'plate-glass' universities of that expansionist decade — and took the name of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, whose Great Western Railway runs past the edge of Uxbridge on its way from Paddington to the west. The founding idea was straightforward: an engineering college for a country that had decided it needed more engineers.
The single campus — everything within a ten-minute walk, halls and lectures and laboratories together — remains its signature. Sport science, design and the health sciences have grown up beside the engineering core; the athletics centre has trained Olympians, and the Brunel museum of engineering keeps the great man's shadow in the family.
Field notes
- The campus stands a mile from where the Great Western Railway's line runs — the founder's railway is the local commute.
- Its sports facilities have served as training grounds for Olympic teams.
- Brunel the man never taught here; Brunel the idea absolutely does.
Notable connections
In brief — from the field guide
A 1960s plate-glass university on the Uxbridge plateau, named for the engineer whose bridges, tunnels and ships built the nineteenth century. Engineering-first in temperament, single-campus by design.
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