Robert Howlett in this feat of engineering. This project included the well-known portrait of the "Great Eastern"’s creator and engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, standing in front of the giant launching chains on the 'checking drum' braking mechanism at John Scott Russell’s Millwall shipyard. It was taken to celebrate the launch of the world’s largest steamship, in November 1857. This image, which depicts Brunel in an industrial setting instead of a more traditional background for a portrait, has been described as "one of the first examples of environmental portraiture". Howlett died in 1858, aged 27, at his home and studio at 10 Bedford
Marc Isambard Brunel Prince Albert visited. Although intended for horse-drawn traffic, the tunnel remained pedestrian only. In 1865 the East London Railway Company purchased the Thames Tunnel for £200,000 and four years later the first trains passed through it. Subsequently, the tunnel became part of the London Underground system, and remains in use today, as part of the East London Line of London Overground. The engine house in Rotherhithe was taken over by a charitable trust in 1975 and transformed into the Brunel Museum in 2006. After the completion of the Thames Tunnel, his greatest achievement, Brunel was in poor health. He never