With the exception of the Museum of London Docklands, which has permanent exhibitions on the history of London’s ports, there are few places where you can go to find out about the important industrial heritage of East London.
There are glass cases here and there amongst the borough museums where you can piece together some of the picture, but nowhere will you be able to fully explore the story of Edwin Roe, the man responsible for the first manned British plane flight and the creation of the Avro company (who would go on to build one of the UK’s most important military aircraft, the Vulcan). Neither will you be able to unearth much information about AEC, whose factory in Walthamstow kick-started London’s thriving bus and lorry manufacturing industry, or the Great Eastern Railway’s massive works on the site of the Olympic Park in Stratford which over its lifetime was responsible for building nearly 1,700 steam locomotives, 5,500 passenger carriages and 33,000 goods wagons.
Thankfully one small fragment of the area’s industrial history is secure – go along to Walthamstow’s Vestry House museum and you’ll discover a restored Bremer car, significant because this was the first British motor car built with an internal combustion engine… As for the rest, one group of enthusiasts are aiming to do something about this woeful lack of recognition of East London’s importance in manufacturing – occupying a site on South Access Road near the area’s extensive network of reservoirs, the volunteers of the Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum are busy establishing a new museum which seeks to set out this important story of invention and innovation.
The Pumphouse in question is the Grade II listed Low Hall Victorian-era Pumping Statio, which contains the last surviving example of a Marshall C Class steam engine which, after painstaking restoration work, is now in full working order. Elsewhere on the site there are examples of historic vehicles, and a building dubbed ‘the Firestation’ which has a large collection of fire-fighting equipment, including the Dennis fire engine which had a starring role in the London’s Burning TV series. Also in their collection is a World War II era trailer pump and a very rare 1896 vintage horse-drawn Merryweather hand-operated pump - given that the future of the London Fire Brigade Museum in Southwark is still very uncertain, the day when this is London’s only permanent exhibition dedicated to the fire service might not be that far away.
As part of their plans for the future, the volunteers are currently working with the Heritage Lottery Fund to establish a permanent set of museum buildings which will sit around the Pumphouse. The largest will accommodate a transport gallery where the museum’s fantastic 1968 Victoria Line tube train will be on display (which is proving to be a popular venue for pop-up dining experiences this year, organised by the Basement Galley) alongside one of their Routemaster buses and the full-size replica of the Roe aircraft, which will hover above the space. There will smaller galleries dedicated to other aspects of the industrial past, and a large learning centre/meeting room. Outside, the most dramatic transformation will take place – this fairly bare plot of land will acquire an early twentieth century streetscape complete with tram tracks and a working tram! The shop windows along this street will also allow the museum to display some of their other artifacts, including a ‘toy shop’ that is intended to feature the many examples of local toy manufacturer Wells Brimtoy’s products, while a 1920s garage will serve as a home for many of their other vehicles.
The Pumphouse Museum welcomes visitors every Sunday, but if you pop along do bear in mind that the site is very much a work in progress and that all of the volunteers are involved in various restoration projects – don’t expect dedicated museum staff to be on hand to guide you around the displays. The best opportunity to see the museum comes every last Sunday in the month, when the Marshall steam engine operates – if you’re a classic car owner you might also be interested in the first Tuesday evening of the month when the site hosts a get-together for enthusiasts.
If you do head along to the Pumphouse Museum keep your eyes open for a rather peculiar interloper, which found its way here from a defunct transport museum in Leicester. I’ll give you a small clue – ‘diese Art des Verkehrs ist 285 Meilen entfernt von ihrem ursprünglichen Zuhause’…
About Pete Stean
