The Great Engine House Project

The London Museum of Water & Steam has been awarded £2,626,277 to restore its Great Engine House, home to the world’s two largest Cornish beam engines, by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND). The funding will help make the building watertight, improve environmental conditions, remove harmful past repairs, conserve the engines, and safely eliminate asbestos-containing materials.

Based in a Georgian water pumping station in Brentford, West London, the Museum cares for the world’s largest collection of stationary steam pumping engines, which pumped clean water into the homes of millions of Londoners between 1838 and 1944 - helping to transform London into the city it is today. These colossal machines showcase 200 years of engineering innovation while inspiring visitors to reflect on the importance of access to clean water and its conservation.

07439. 100 inch Cylinder with Cleaners. 25 May 1946

We have secured the largest single grant awarded in the round and this funding is key to preserving our historic engines and securing the Museum's future.

“At the London Museum of Water & Steam we celebrate the remarkable story of human ingenuity, innovation, and engineering, aiming to enthuse our audiences for the cause for clean, equitable water. This funding is vital in safeguarding an amazing historic building that incorporates some massive and awe-inspiring engines. We are thrilled that our significance and story will be secured for the future wellbeing and inspiration of our communities, be they our very local supporters or our national and international visitors.” Hannah Harte

In the Press

DCMS Announcement
Ian Visits
BBC News
Time Out
Brentford TW8
Arts Professional

As part of the application process, in July/August 2024 we ran a Crowdfunder campaign to raise a percentage of the grant through public support. We successfully raised over £50,000 with 660 supporters. Learn more about the project on the Crowdfunder website or by watching the video below.

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Project Updates

What's been going on lately with the Great Engine House Project? Quite a lot!

The project works commenced on 18 May, with the pre-construction phase of works to remove asbestos and other hazardous materials from the beam engines and the rest of the building.

The set up was quite something with the building covered in scaffolding and polythene sheeting and a full contractors compound externally.

The scaffold took a little longer than expected to complete as it had to be constructed so as to provide sufficient access for the heavy lifting of engine components, with minor running adjustments made in the process. Finally, the whole building (more of less) had to be covered in polythene sheeting and signed off by filling it with smoke to detect any leaks.

All this done during a heatwave, with the hottest May on record!

Once this was done and signed off, the team begun the task of lifting the engine components off over the course of five days, commencing with the 90” engine cylinder false cover. The outer segments were lifted off in sequence first using a chain hoist and guide down to the floor by hand, an easy enough task, which then revealed the inner disk. This threw us a small curveball as the design of the disk was not as we originally thought, and concerns about the disk binding up on the central upstand (part of the gland follower assembly) were always in the back of our head.

Nonetheless the cylinder disk lifted like a dream, using strops passed through holes in the cover for safety, and it was safely resting on its steel and timber supports by 1pm.

The 100” cylinder false cover was next. If the 90” covers were a dream then this was a nightmare. The first problem was lifting the outer iron segments, where almost all lifting eyes were totally unusable as the threaded holes in the engine components were shot. There were also added complications to the inner disk as well which had to be carefully lifted with wedges at first before lifting gear could be used.

Both engine valve chest top covers were then tackled. These lifted more or less as expected, although, they were very front heavy due to the valve gear. We knew this would be the case although it was impossible to know just how much so until lifting. With the aid of an additional small chain hoist, they also came up without much trouble.

All this done during another heatwave, with the hottest June on record!

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During the course of removing components the engines continued to give up their secrets. A number of tooling marks were found in concealed areas showing how the original engine builders hand-chiselled components on site to get them to fit. Also found were evidence of steam pipe feeds to piston rod lantern rings (a device to stop air being drawn into the cylinder), long since disconnected, alongside plenty of cigarette packs, matches, match boxes, crisp packets and chocolate bar wrappers all stuffed down convenient holes! These were recorded and a selection removed for preservation in our archives.

Next, following removal of asbestos to the cylinder tops, the lagging sheets were removed, starting from the top of the engine and moving down onto the ground floors. This made for a less wanted discovery; almost 2.5 tonnes worth of loose coal ash, iron filings and builders waste which had been poured down the gap between the lagging sheets and the insulation, some of which had congealed together with oil, and all of which fell out of the bottom of the engines as the sheets were removed. After some rather strong language, we wondered why this had been done? Perhaps as a form of additional cheap insulation? Perhaps because it was Friday afternoon and the foreman wasn’t looking?

Once this was removed the original lagging was found, which was an early form of insulation of indeterminable composition, much like the Bull engine was when that was restored. Due to contamination with asbestos and other hazardous materials and its poor condition with many areas collapsing this also had to be removed. The same material was found in the valve chests, much of which had already fallen off and settled in the bottom of the valve boxes.

The asbestos clearance was signed off as complete by the independent analyst on 22 July, and the team are now clearing the site. The scaffold will remain in place for the rest of August to enable us to reinstate the engine components and replace the lagging.

My thanks to James, Karol, Mario and Jarek from Asbestech and Jason of Lucion services for their help and commitment to the project.

Alongside these works our design team have been completing the final touches of the tender for the main works, and this is now out with our shortlisted contractors for pricing, with returns due back in mid August. All being well the main external scaffolding will start in Mid October.

As always our thanks go out to Arts Council England and the Department for Culture Media and Sport who’s grant funding, through the Museum Estates Development Fund, has made these works possible.