An historic pumping station
Kew Bridge Steam Museum
Water is vital for life and health. Until the development of steam engines Londoners lacked easy access to water sources such as wells, streams and conduits. The museum at Kew shows how technology has solved the problem as the city has grown and grown.
Steam power 
Water and horse powered pumps could only lift water short distances. Steam pumping engines developed by Newcomen, Watt and others made it possible for water to be lifted and distributed across vast distances. At first the rich and now everyone can have water pumped straight to their homes.
Water for Londoners
Kew Bridge Steam Museum is housed within a 19th Century Victorian waterworks and five of the original steam pumping engines have been preserved. Four are in working order. The museum also contains a permanent exhibition on the history of London's water from the Roman occupation up to the modern Thames water ring main which supplies Londoner's with water today.
Submitted by: Lesley Bossine, Kew Steam Museum, 16 January 2007
