Kew Bridge Steam Museum in London explores steam engines for water pumping and supply. The museum features a variety of steam and beam engines and other technologies. It was once a fully functioning pumping station and was converted into a museum in 1973. The heart of the museum is Steam Hall, which features a green triple-expansion steam engine and several distinctive beam engines. The Water for Life Gallery is more interactive and educates visitors about water supply technologies. The museum is internationally recognized and has been designated an Engineering Heritage Hallmark. It has also been used as a filming location for television and film.
Kew Bridge Steam Museum, located in an old pumping station, explores steam engines for water pumping and the water supply industry. The distinctive Standpipe Tower marks the museum’s location a few yards west of Kew Bridge on the River Thames in London, England. Originally opened in 1973, Kew Bridge Steam Museum features a variety of steam and beam engines and other technologies that once helped supply the city with water. One of the museum’s primary goals is to make this history interesting and accessible to all visitors, regardless of previous interest in steam engines.
Today’s Kew Bridge Steam Museum was once a fully functioning pumping station which first opened in 1838. The station expanded by adding steam, Allen diesel and electric pumps until 1958. Instead of destroying the engines when the station was decommissioned, they were stored with the intention of eventually founding a museum on the site. Kew Bridge Engines Trust was created as a charity in 1973 to restore the pumping station and open a museum. By 1975, the trust had achieved its goal, although it continues to rely on donations and other supports to maintain and operate the museum.
The heart of this museum is Steam Hall. The collection here features a green triple-expansion steam engine representing a design and type commonly built after 1900. Several distinctive beam engines are also on display, such as the largest surviving single-cylinder beam engine in the world. Other exhibits include the Maudslay engine, the first beam engine built for the pumping station when it began operating in 1838, and the Boulton and Watt engine, built in 1820. Visitors can also take a ride on the station’s steam engine. pumping, called Waterworks Railroad.
The Water for Life Gallery is more interactive and strives to educate the visitor about water supply technologies from the age of Rome to the present day. On display tubs, sinks, boilers and other technologies. There are also information and interactive displays about Victorian-era toshers, or scavengers who hunted through the sewers for valuables in groups of at least three people to protect themselves from vermin. The exhibition concludes with a section of the main loop of Thames Water London showing how the city’s water distribution system works today. Visitors will leave with a better understanding of using water in their daily lives and the work involved in keeping it safe to use.
Groups and researchers are welcome at Kew Bridge Steam Museum. The museum has a large archive available, although most of it is technical in nature and focuses on the London water supply industry. Researchers can also review oral interviews with former pumping station employees as well as personnel rosters. A research guide is available to interested parties and the museum will reserve an appointment for a researcher upon request.
This museum is internationally recognized by various organizations. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Britain’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers designated Kew Bridge Steam Museum an Engineering Heritage Hallmark in 1997. The museum is also part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage, a network of major industrial heritage sites on the continent which emphasizes the impact of industrialization in all European countries.
The museum’s unique location, collection, and architecture have made it a popular venue for television and film. For example, “Remembrance of the Daleks”, a 1988 episode of the science fiction television series Doctor Who, was filmed in part at Kew Bridge Steam Museum. The museum also featured in the opening title sequence of Top of the Pops, a British Broadcasting Corporation music show, from 1991 to 1995.
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