London Museum of Water & Steam is an independent museum founded in 1975 as the Kew Bridge Steam Museum. It was rebranded in early 2014 following a major investment project.London Museum of Water and Steam , Green Dragon Lane TW8 0EN , Museums , Time Out London
/ref> Situated on the site of the old Kew Bridge Pumping Station in Brentford, near

Kew Bridge Kew Bridge is a wide-span bridge over the Tideway (upper estuary of the Thames) linking the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow. The present bridge, which was opened in 1903 as King Edward VII Bridge by King Edward VII and Quee ...

on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

in West

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, the museum is centred on a collection of stationary water pumping steam engines dating from 1820 to 1910. It is the home of the world's largest collection of working Cornish engines, including the Grand Junction 90 inch, the largest such working engine in the world. The site is an anchor point on the

European Route of Industrial Heritage The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) is a tourist route of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. This is a tourism industry information initiative to present a network of industrial heritage sites across Europe. The ...

(ERIH). The museum reopened on 22 March 2014.

History

Kew Bridge Pumping Station was originally opened in 1838 by the

Grand Junction Waterworks Company The Grand Junction Waterworks Company was a utility company supplying water to parts of west London in England. The company was formed as an offshoot of the Grand Junction Canal Company in 1811 and became part of the publicly owned Metropoli ...

, following a decision to close an earlier pumping station at Chelsea due to poor water quality. In the years up to 1944 the site expanded, ultimately housing six steam pumping engines as well as four Allen diesel pumps and four electric pump sets. The steam engines were retired from service in 1944, although two were kept on standby until 1958, when a demonstration run of the Harvey & Co. 100 inch engine marked the final time steam power would pump drinking water at the site. The

Metropolitan Water Board The Metropolitan Water Board was a municipal body formed in 1903 to manage the water supply in London, UK. The members of the board were nominated by the local authorities within its area of supply. In 1904 it took over the water supply functi ...

decided not to scrap the resident steam pumping engines and set them aside to form the basis of a museum display at a later date. This action bore fruit in 1974 with the formation of the Kew Bridge Engines Trust, a registered charity, by a group of volunteers previously involved in the restoration of the

Crofton Pumping Station Crofton Pumping Station, near the village of Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England, supplies the summit pound of the Kennet and Avon Canal with water. The steam-powered pumping station is preserved and operates on selected weekends. It contains ...

. Today the site is an internationally recognised museum of working steam pumping engines, a reminder of the many pumping stations spread throughout

and the UK. In 1999, the United Kingdom government

Department for Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

described Kew Bridge as "the most important historic site of the water supply industry in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

". The Kew Bridge Engine Trust and Water Supply Museum Limited, a registered charity, has three aims: # to restore (and maintain) the five historic beam engines at the Kew Bridge site # to add other important water pumping engines # to establish a museum of

's water supply. In 1997 the museum was awarded an Engineering Heritage Award by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (

ASME The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

) and Britain's

Institute of Mechanical Engineers The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) is an independent professional association and learned society headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that represents mechanical engineers and the engineering profession. With over 120,000 member ...

(IMechE). A second IMechE Engineering Hallmark was awarded in 2008 for the restoration of the Bull engine, making the museum one of only 12 sites to achieve more than one of these awards.

Engines

90 inch engine valves,Kew Bridge Steam Museum

The museum houses the world's largest collection of Cornish cycle beam engines, including the largest working beam engine, the Grand Junction 90 inch, which has a cylinder diameter of 90 inches and was used to pump water to

for 98 years. This machine is over 40 feet high and weighs about 250 tons. It was described by

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

as "a monster". The museum also has several other working Cornish cycle beam engines, and other working steam engines, as well as a three-cylinder Allen

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

which is also on public display and frequently run. A complete list of the pumping engines at the museum is as follows: * Sandys, Carne and Vivyan ( Copperhouse Foundry) 90 inch * Harvey & Co. 100 inch * Bull engine * Maudslay engine *

Boulton & Watt Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Eng ...

(or West Cornish engine) * James Simpson & Co. (or Waddon engine) * Easton and Amos engine *

Hathorn Davey Hathorn Davey was a British manufacturer of steam engines, based in Leeds. The Sun foundry was established in 1846 and made railway engines and pumping machinery until 1870. The premises were taken over in 1872 by Hugh Campbel, Alfred Davis and J ...

& Co. triple expansion engine * James Kay, (or Dancer's End engine) *

Allen Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Unive ...

diesel engine * Hindley waterwheel The museum also operates an 1860

Shand Mason Shand Mason was a British company which designed and manufactured steam powered fire engines and other fire-fighting equipment during the 19th century and early 20th centuries. History The company that eventually became Shand Mason was founded i ...

Fire Engine on selected event days.

Railway

The museum runs a

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

railway which in 2009 saw the introduction of a new-build Wren Class steam locomotive, named for the engineer Thomas Wicksteed. The railway had previously been operated by visiting loan locomotives. The line runs for 400 yards around the Kew Bridge site, and passenger trains are operated at weekends and on other special event days. Although not an original feature of the waterworks at Kew Bridge, the railway was inspired by similar facilities provided at major waterworks in the UK, notably the

Metropolitan Water Board Railway The Metropolitan Water Board Railway was a narrow gauge industrial railway built to serve the Metropolitan Water Board's pumping station at Kempton Park near London. The line was opened in 1916 and closed shortly after the Second World War. ...

that originally ran between Hampton and the Kempton Park waterworks. A small part of that railway is now operated as the Kempton Steam Railway, comprising the only other site in London where rides can be taken on steam trains of such a large size; it has benefitted from some very generous assistance, in its restoration, from the London Museum of Water & Steam.

Locomotives

The site

The museum site contains a number of Grade I and Grade II listed buildings. The original engine house, home of the

Bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions, includin ...

and Maudslay engines, was built in 1837 and is Grade I listed, as is the Great Engine House, housing the 90 inch and 100 inch engines, which was constructed in two parts in 1845 and 1869. The Boiler House, which now houses the rotative steam engines, was built in 1837, and along with the ancillary buildings and Gatehouse and Boundary Wall, is Grade II listed. The ancillary buildings, which include a fully working forge and belt driven workshop, are used by a number of independent artists and creatives.

The tower

The museum's most striking feature is its 200 ft high Victorian standpipe tower. This is not a chimney stack; it houses two systems of vertical pipes through which water was pumped before it entered the mains water supply. The brick tower, of Italianate design, was constructed in 1867 to replace an earlier open metal lattice structure. It is a Grade I listed building. The tower is rarely open to the Public.

Use in television

The museum has been a filming location for episodes of TV serials including '' EastEnders'', ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983. The programme focused o ...

'', '' Doctor Who'' ("

Remembrance of the Daleks ''Remembrance of the Daleks'' is the first serial of the 25th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. The serial was first broadcast in four weekly episodes from 5 to 26 October 1988. It was written by Ben Aaronovi ...

") and '' Industrial Age''. As well as many music videos and feature films, including Jude Law's '' The Wisdom of Crocodiles'', it was also used as the location for the 1991-1995 title sequence of the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...