“What a monster! Imagine an enormous see-saw, with a steam engine at one end, and a pump at the other …” So enthused Charles Dickens in the April 1850 edition of the Household Words Magazine.

And this was the beast he was talking about: The Grand Junction 90-inch engine
During Dickens’ time in 1846 served as Kew Pumping Station, and was almost certainly the largest in the world at the time.

The London Museum of Water and Steam
Aka Kew Bridge Steam Museum, it is an independent museum founded in 1975. Situated on the site of the old Kew Bridge Pumping Station in Brentford, it is centred on a collection of stationary water pumping steam engines dating from 1820 to 1910. The site contains a number of Grade I and Grade II listed buildings, and is the home of the world's largest collection of working Cornish engines, which are in their original engine houses, including the aforementioned Grand Junction 90 inch.
It also houses rotative engines collected by the museum trust from pumping stations across the country. In addition, there are examples of diesel, electric, water and animal powered pumping engines. The museum is also home to a narrow-gauge steam locomotive and a Waterworks Gallery that traces the development of London’s clean water supply.
Kew Bridge Pumping Station was originally opened in 1838 by the Grand Junction Waterworks Company, 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. That same year the steam engines were retired from service, 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.
Happily the Metropolitan Water Board decided not to scrap the resident steam pumping engines, rather they were set 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.
Today the site is an internationally recognised museum of working steam pumping engines, a reminder of the many pumping stations spread throughout London and the UK, and serves as an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage. In 1999, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport described Kew Bridge as "the most important historic site of the water supply industry in Britain”.
In 1997 the museum received an Engineering Heritage Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Britain's Institute of Mechanical Engineers. A second award was made 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.
One of the museum's most striking features 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 Grade I listed, and occasionally - if rarely - open to the public.
The museum has been used as a filming location for episodes of TV serials including Eastenders, The Bill, Doctor Who, (Remembrance of the Daleks), Red Dwarf and Industrial Age. Music videos and feature films have also used the site, including Jude Law’s The Wisdom of Crocodiles. And it was used as the location for the 1991-1995 title sequence of the BBC’s Top of the Pops.
Here is a link to their website: https://waterandsteam.org.uk Below is more detail on the Cornish and rotative engines:
The Cornish Engines
The term “Cornish” refers to the operating cycle of these engines, although three in the museum collection were also manufactured in Cornwall. The main characteristic of a Cornish engine is that pumping is done by a falling weight which is lifted by the engine. This weight is positioned above the pump, which is linked to a beam, with the piston attached to the opposite end of this beam. The weight is lifted by a combination of steam pressure above, and vacuum below the piston. During the pumping stroke, as the weight falls, the piston returns to the top of the cylinder because an equilibrium valve opens to allow steam to pass from above to below the piston. The speed of movement varies during the cycle, making a Cornish engine. Phew.
The Rotative Engines
In the Steam Hall there are four large rotative steam pumping engines plus a number of smaller ancillary engines. In the rotative engine the linear motion of the piston is converted into rotary motion by the crank. The use of both cranks and large flywheels balance out the varying thrusts and loads, thus allowing the engines to operate steadily and smoothly. (Sorry, this is all getting a bit too much).

An 1820 Boulton & Watt Beam Engine

Some photographs outside the museum:

Not that welcoming





Locomotive "Cloister" (on loan) passes the museum garden

Red arrow: Brentford Museum of Water and Steam, (handy for the Brentford Musical Museum, (green arrow), as you can see).
Kempton Steam Museum
Didn’t get around to it during my lockdown bike rides, but after visiting it with my wife in October 2022 I realised I should have.
This cathedral to steam is home to the world’s largest working triple-expansion steam engine, (that's it - The Sir William Prescott - at the back of the photograph below). Standing as high as four stacked double-decker buses and over 800 tons in weight, along with its identical twin, (The Lady Bessie Prescott in the same museum, albeit moth-balled), it pumped vast volumes of London’s drinking water from 1929 to 1980. Indeed, each engine could pump nineteen million imperial gallons of water a day to reservoirs at Cricklewood, Fortis Green and Finsbury Park for the supply of drinking water to the north, east and west of London. They're among the largest engines ever built in the UK.

Thank you John Royle for this photo inside the museum, taken on a recent visit in May 2023
RMS Titanic was propelled by two very similar, even larger, triple-expansion steam engines, one each for the port and starboard propellers, aided by a relatively small turbine that drove the centre propeller. Astonishing when you think of the scale and weight of these things.
A team of unpaid volunteers handle all of the restoration and maintenance work, and run the museum, which is open for several "Steaming Weekends" per year when The Sir William Prescott Engine is operated. The museum is also open on certain Sundays for "Static Viewing" between March and November, when the engine doesn’t run. A visit is highly recommended, especially when the engine is operating. Oh, and mustn't forget the refreshments: among other snacks, the most delicious cake is served, along with coffee or tea. Can't speak too highly of the Victoria sponge! Generous portions too. At the bottom of John's photograph you can just see part of the "balcony" which has a seating area and tables where you can have a break and enjoy your chosen snack/s while taking in the view.
This is their website https://kemptonsteam.org

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