FULL STEAM AHEAD

Photographing the world’s largest steam engine at Kempton Steam Museum

In May, eight members of the Photography 1 group appreciated a private visit to the Kempton Steam Museum, one of the UK’s most remarkable industrial heritage sites and it’s right on our doorstep.

The museum’s star attraction, the ‘Sir William Prescott Engine’, is regarded as the largest operational triple-expansion steam engine in the world. It stands about 62 feet tall - so tall it would dwarf four double-decker buses stacked on top of each other - and weighs roughly 800 tons. The engine sits amongst two steam turbines and opposite an identical twin called ‘The Lady Bessie Prescott Engine’. These two giant engines were named after the chairman of the Metropolitan Water Board and his wife.

The engines were each installed to pump 12 to 19 million gallons of drinking water per day to reservoirs in North London, supplying fresh water to The City, Central, East and West London. Despite being designed in the 1920s, the engines remained in regular service until 1980, when electric pumps finally replaced them.

Our visit gave us a rare opportunity to get up close to examine the machinery and to explore the museum from the highest walkway to the very depths of the basement. This isn’t a museum of dusty exhibits behind glass. This is living, breathing engineering.

We also enjoyed a talk by one of the Museum’s trustees on the history of this amazing pumping station. The building is almost as impressive as the machinery. Designed as a monumental civic building, complete with towering chimneys, nicknamed the King and Queen Chimneys, it was built at a time when public utilities were impressive as well as functional.

The museum itself was rescued by volunteers who painstakingly restored the machinery. Work which continues today. The ‘Sir William Prescott Engine’ was returned to steam in 2002 after more than two decades of silence and can be seen in action at special events throughout the year.

Kempton Steam Museum, Snakey Lane, Hanworth, TW13 6XH opens regularly for guided tours and steaming open days. Private photographic visits by arrangement.

Nikki Lindsey