Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
 |
« on: March 07, 2016, 07:45:37 PM » |
|
Sunday afternoon. Nothing to do. Drizzly & cold outside. Bored.
Time to jump in the car & just drive somewhere at random & see what crops up -a habit I've developed over the last couple of years as a single bloke. No reason I can't just go wherever the hell I feel like.
Which is why I came to be in South East London, drifting aimlessly along in the car, looking for a sign. I found one -it said London Museum of Water & Steam. That'll do. Just off Kew Bridge there's a huge chimney, rising above the city buildings. I've passed it a million times & never known what it was. Turns out it's part of the old Victorian water pumping station that supplied water to the houses & sewers of that corner of London.
If you're partial to a bit of steam, architecture & a time when everything, even sewage pump houses, were built & maintained with so much more elegance & style, you'll love this place.
A few snaps of a very pleasant afternoon out.
The sign's made from sections of modern plastic water pipe.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2016, 07:46:46 PM » |
|
Very nice café -I recommend the hot soup & crusty bread.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2016, 07:47:59 PM » |
|
.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2016, 07:49:34 PM » |
|
Victorian oak floorboards repaired with a lump of tree -you can see the knobbly branch ends sticking up.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2016, 07:52:42 PM » |
|
The main pump room housed 3 or 4 assorted steam driven engines, which were being run one after the other all day. Heaven for lovers of hot oil & steam.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2016, 07:56:45 PM » |
|
Lots of hands on educational stuff for the kids, with displays of pistons & valves made of transparent plastic tubes filled with coloured water for them to experiment with, colouring & drawing equipment, Victorian dressing up areas & a steam train ride around the yard.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2016, 07:59:22 PM » |
|
One wall of the entrance hall was filled with a display of antique & modern household items -sadly, I remembered a lot of them.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2016, 08:00:56 PM » |
|
.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2016, 08:02:44 PM » |
|
.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2016, 08:05:41 PM » |
|
.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2016, 08:08:20 PM » |
|
The main building has 4 or 5 floors full of pistons, flywheels, beams & valves. Lovely.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2016, 08:09:52 PM » |
|
.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2016, 08:12:51 PM » |
|
Free to wander wherever you like, no-one to tell you you can't touch this or that, just a couple of guys in boiler suits carrying mugs of tea & squirty oil cans.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
Manky Monkey
Administrator
Hero Member
Karma: 264
Posts: 55102
|
|
« Reply #13 on: March 07, 2016, 08:15:55 PM » |
|
The building had a central staircase, with rooms off on either side, housing 2 massive beam engines, with their shafts passing up through the floors & ceilings. Up in the attic rooms were the beams themselves.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
On the last freedom moped out of Nowhere City.
|
|
|
|
Baychimp
|
|
« Reply #14 on: March 07, 2016, 08:17:15 PM » |
|
The Chimney, actually isn't a Chimney,its a Victorian standpipe tower. Its got vertical pipes inside the water was pumped up this before it entered the mains system. I used to pass this twice a day when it was derelict on my to see missus Baychimp. She was still a miss then.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
