Part five in our round-up of the best shoes for walking sees Robert, Director of the Brunel Museum and leader of the Brunel’s Thames Tunnel walk every Tuesday, achieve what we’d though impossible: to blog about Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s boots while ignoring his most obvious sartorial feature altogether. Which is why he’s such a good guide, o’course…
Stop looking at the hat! Look at the boots! The boots!
“Brunel our most famous engineer wore muddy boots to clamber through his Thames Tunnel at Rotherhithe, and also to launch his steamship, the Great Eastern, at Millwall. The iconic photograph in front of the chains proves it: in those days heavy engineering requires heavy footwear…
Different today.
‘Brunel Walks on Water and Underwater’ (Rep tours Saturdays) visits both sites, but there is no mud involved. ‘Brunel’s Thames Tunnel’ (every Sunday & Tuesday) descends into the void by narrow staircase, but water and methane are now quite gone.
Robert keeps it simple
For short walks along the Thames, we think like engineers but walk like sailors. Comfortable deck shoes are quite sufficient for the job in hand.”
