Britain’s most daring engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), is thought of as a Bristol man, but many overlook the fact that he always lived in London. We will admire Brunel’s achievements in these two great cities, travelling from east to west on the great man’s own railway.

Brunel’s first project, aged 19, was the Thames Tunnel, where he worked with his father on what was first dubbed “the Eighth Wonder of the World”, and later – with no little wit and cruelty – “the Great Bore”. We will enjoy a privileged visit to the Brunel Museum, housed in the tunnel’s engine room, and descend by temporary staircase into the underground entrance hall, a grand amphitheatre over half the size of the dome of St Paul’s. A few hundred yards along the Thames lies the launch site of the Great Eastern, where Brunel’s meteoric career ended at the untimely age of 53.

In 1828 Brunel was dragged, more dead than alive, from the chamber of the Thames Tunnel and sent to Clifton to convalesce. Here he won a competition to design a bridge across the Avon Gorge which, together with Bristol’s docks and Temple Meads railway station, still bears unmistakable witness to Brunel’s creativity and ingenuity. We will also climb aboard the ss Great Britain, Brunel’s last great project, and visit Bristol University to view the collection of papers and memorabilia bequeathed by Brunel’s grand-daughter.

We stay in the heart of Clifton village at the Avon Gorge Hotel with unparalleled views over the Clifton Suspension Bridge and Avon Gorge.