Walthamstow Pumphouse - A Museum Dedicated to Industrial Development

There are not many places in London that offer permanent exhibitions on the history of London’s ports except the Museum of London Dockyards. No doubt, there are small borough museums that have glass cases that provide some insight into various industrial developments but it will be difficult to find out about how Edwin Roe helped in the success of the first manned British plane flight and in the setting up of the Avro company that went on to build the Vulcan, UK’s most important military aircraft.

Similarly, it will be difficult to fish out information regarding AEC that had started London’s thriving bus and lorry manufacturing industry. It will also not be easy to learn more about the Great Eastern Railway’s massive works on the site of the Olympic Park in Stratford that has built about 1,700 steam locomotives, 5,500 passenger carriages and 33,000 goods wagons over its lifetime. However, east London’s industrial history is to some extent secure at Walthamstow’s Vestry House Museum where you can see a restored Bremer car, the first British motor car that was built with an internal combustion engine. Realising this lack of recognition regarding East London’s manufacturing history a group of people are trying to establish a new museum, Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum, on a site on South Access Road near the area’s network of reservoirs. The aim of the museum is to trace the various threads of industrial invention and innovation.

Based in Walthamstow, London the Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum is one of the few museums in London that highlights the important industrial heritage of east London by focussing on stellar achievements in road, rail, air and sea transport in Waltham Forest and the nearby areas including the Lea Valley, from the early 19^th century. One of the objectives of the museum is to showcase how Waltham Forest, the surrounding area and its people were affected by the onset of industrial development. The contents of the museum include various artifacts that include Routemaster buses, a pair of Marshall C class steam engine, which after much restoration work is now fully operational, and different types of fire fighting vehicles.

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The museum is housed in and around Low Hall Pumping Station which was a sewage pumping station dating back to 1885 and its buildings are Grade II listed. Previously it operated as The Pump House Steam and Transport Museum Trust and is still being developed. It is open for public viewing only at certain times. Also on the site you can find other historic vehicles and a building known as ‘the Firestation’ that houses various fire-fighting equipment that include the Dennis fire engine that featured prominently in the London’s Burning TV series. You can also find a World War II era trailer pump and a rare 1896 vintage horse-drawn Merryweather hand-operated pump. It is quite possible that this museum will very soon become the only permanent exhibition dedicated to the fire service because the future of the London Fire Brigade Museum in Southwark is uncertain.

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The work of establishing this museum fully is also towards working with the heritage Lottery Fund so that a permanent set of museum buildings can be set up which will be situated around the Pumphouse. The largest of the buildings will house a transport gallery meant to display the museum’s 1968 Victoria Line tube train that is at present a popular place for pop up dining experiences that are organised by the Basement Galley, along with a Routemaster bus and a full-size replica of the Roe aircraft which will hover above the space.

Smaller galleries will also be established that will display other aspects of the industrial past along with a large learning centre/meeting room. Significant transformations are being planned for the outside by giving the bare plot of land an early twentieth century streetscape that will have tram tracks and even a working tram. Along this street, the shop windows will also be cooperating by displaying some of the other artifacts of the museum that will include a ‘toy shop’ featuring many different products of the local toy manufacturer Wells Brimtoy, while a 1920s garage will house many of the other vehicles of the museum.

The Pumphouse Museum is open every Sunday for visitors but it is important to remember that the site is still very much a work in progress and as such you may not be able to find dedicated museum staff to guide you around the various displays. However, if you visit it on the last Sunday of the month you will be able to see the Marshall steam engine in operation or if you visit it on the first Tuesday evening of the month you can be a part of a get-together for enthusiasts.

If you do visit the Pumphouse Museum, you should watch out for a peculiar interloper that has come here from a defunct transport museum in Leicester. The clue to its identity is in ‘diese Art des Verkehrs ist 285 Meilen entfernt von ihrem ursprünglichen Zuhause’…, in case you understand German language.