The Museum of Water and Steam and the Musical Museum, Brentford

Published 28 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

Two small, paid, volunteer-heavy museums sit within a few hundred metres of each other beside Kew Bridge in Brentford: the London Museum of Water & Steam, open Thursday to Sunday, and the Musical Museum, open Friday to Sunday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are therefore the only days both are open. Doing both costs £55 for two adults and two children and fills a day, and the walk between them takes under ten minutes.

The first holds the largest collection of stationary steam pumping engines in the world, in the Georgian pumping station that supplied clean water to west London from 1838 until 1944. The second holds self-playing pianos, a violin that plays itself, a cinema organ and a gallery of synthesisers, all demonstrated by volunteers on a guided tour. Neither is famous, and each has a catch that will spoil the trip if you do not know it: a major engine house at the water museum is shut for restoration, and the Musical Museum is only worth visiting on a tour, which runs at three fixed times.

The engine house that is shut, and what that costs you

The two largest Cornish beam engines in the world stand in the Great Engine House at the water museum, and you cannot see them at the moment. The museum was awarded £2,626,277 from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's Museum Estate and Development Fund to make the building watertight, conserve the engines and strip out asbestos, and the building is closed while that happens.

The project diary is unusually candid about what that has involved: the whole building sheeted in polythene and smoke-tested for leaks, five days of lifting cylinder covers off the two engines with chain hoists, and two and a half tonnes of coal ash and builders' rubbish falling out of the engine lagging when it came away. Asbestos clearance was signed off in July and the main scaffolding was due mid-October. No reopening date is published.

What does run under steam, and on which weekends

Here is the distinction that matters. The huge Cornish engines were never demonstrated to visitors in the way a small engine can be; what the museum steams are the engines it can safely run, and it does that on advertised Steam Up weekends rather than every day. In autumn and winter 2026 those fall on 24–25 October and 28–29 November, with a New Year's Steam Up over three days at the end of December. Steam Up admission is priced separately from ordinary entry.

On other weekend days the draw for children is the narrow-gauge railway, where a small locomotive called Thomas Wicksteed runs on advertised Train Days. Through the autumn these were listed on most Saturdays, with a Halloween train in the October half term and a model steam railway weekend in November. None of it is guaranteed on a quiet Thursday, which is the honest answer to whether a weekday visit is worth the fare: the building is open, the engines are still, and the atmosphere is that of a very good technical archive.

The rest of the water museum, and whether children last

The site is the former Kew Bridge Pumping Station, built in 1838 by the Grand Junction Water Works Company and working until 1944. Volunteers reopened it in the 1970s as the Kew Bridge Steam Museum; it took its present name in 2014. The subject is London's water supply, which is more interesting than it sounds once you have seen how much iron it took to lift a river into people's houses.

For younger children, two things hold up: the Waterworks Gallery, a hands-on room about how water behaves, and the Splash Zone in the Waterwheel Courtyard, outdoor water play reached by a ramp near the Boulton and Watt engine. Picnics are welcome in both the Splash Zone and the garden, and there is a buggy park in the shop. Bring a change of clothes in summer; the museum keeps spares behind the desk, which tells you how the Splash Zone usually goes.

Step-free access at the water museum: partly

A step-free route runs through most of the museum and there is seating throughout, an accessible toilet by the shop, and baby-change and potty seats in every toilet. What is not step-free is the Great Engine House, the beam floors and the community exhibition space - so a wheelchair user sees the ground-floor collection and the galleries but not the upper levels of the engines. Accessible parking can be reserved by email in advance, though not when the car park is closed.

The car park closes on Brentford FC home match days and for private events, which is worth checking if you are driving. Our guide to accessible London covers the wider picture, and step-free transport in London deals with the journey.

The Musical Museum, and why you must take the tour

The Musical Museum was founded in 1963 by Frank Holland and is run almost entirely by volunteers, with no regular public funding. It holds instruments that play themselves: pianos that reproduce performances recorded by named pianists, a self-playing violin, music boxes, gramophones, an Edison phonograph, a jukebox loaded with 78rpm records, a Mighty Wurlitzer cinema organ built to accompany silent films, and more than 20,000 paper music rolls. A separate gallery covers the history of synthesis and Korg's electronic instruments.

You may wander the three galleries alone, and if you do, you will have wasted your money. Almost everything here is silent until somebody starts it, and the point of the place is hearing a machine built in 1910 play a pianist who died in 1930. That happens on the volunteer-led guided tour, which runs at 10.30am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm and takes a little over an hour. Tours can be curtailed or dropped when a concert or event is on, and they depend on which guide is available.

General admission tickets are bought at reception on the day; there is no advance booking for individuals. Groups of fifteen or more can arrange a visit on any day of the week, which is the only way to see the collection outside Friday to Sunday.

Concerts, the Wurlitzer and the silent films

The museum has a 250-seat concert hall and runs concerts, special tours and silent film screenings through the year. A silent film with live cinema organ is an uncommon evening in London, and this is one of very few places able to stage it properly, because the organ was built for the job. Dates appear on the museum's own listings rather than in the general London guides. For the other end of that tradition, see our guide to London cinemas worth visiting, and for organ music in the centre, classical music in London.

A day that works: the 10.30 tour, then the engines

The sequence matters, because one museum has fixed tour times and the other has a last entry. This is the plan we would use on a Saturday.

Reverse it if you would rather eat at midday: the water museum's last entry is 3pm, so an afternoon arrival there still works, but the 2.30pm tour is the last of the day and finishes close to closing.

What both museums cost a family

Two adults and two children pay £25 at the water museum on the family ticket, against £32 if you bought singles, and £30 at the Musical Museum, against £40 as singles. Both family tickets are the obvious buy. Fifty-five pounds for a full day, with a picnic, is good value by London standards, and neither museum is on any of the sightseeing passes.

Children under five are free at the water museum. The Musical Museum does not publish a free age band, and it is not a museum that suits a toddler anyway: an hour-long tour of things not to touch is a hard sell below about seven. Our guide to London with kids has the alternatives, and neither of these is on the list of free museums in London.

Getting to Brentford, and what else is out here

The simplest route is South Western Railway from Waterloo via Clapham Junction to Kew Bridge, about five minutes' walk from either museum. By Underground, take the District line to Gunnersbury and the 237 or 267 bus, about ten minutes, getting off at the stop named after the Musical Museum; or the Piccadilly line to South Ealing and the 65 bus. Buses 65, 110, 237 and 267 all serve the area, and the 65 runs through the night. Our guides to the District and Circle lines and the Piccadilly line cover the journeys out.

Kew Gardens is close enough to add, though it makes a very long day, and Syon House and Park is the better pairing in good weather. Brentford and Isleworth covers the town and the riverside, and Chiswick and Kew the districts either side.

For industrial London of the same kind, Crossness Pumping Station in the far south-east opens on a handful of dates a year and steams on fewer, and the London Transport Museum is the central, all-week version. Two more single-trust museums with restricted opening: the Ragged School Museum in Mile End, and the rest of our small museums list.

Frequently asked questions

Which days are both Brentford museums open?

Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The London Museum of Water & Steam opens Thursday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm, with last entry at 3pm, and the Musical Museum opens Friday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm. Both are closed from Monday to Wednesday, and the Musical Museum is closed on Thursdays as well, which is the day to avoid if you were planning to do the pair.

Are the big beam engines running?

No. The Great Engine House, which holds the world's two largest Cornish beam engines, is closed for a £2.6m restoration funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, with no reopening date published as of September 2026. The smaller engines run on advertised Steam Up weekends, which in late 2026 fall on 24–25 October, 28–29 November and three days at the end of December.

Do you have to book the Musical Museum tour?

Individual visitors buy tickets at reception on the day and join one of the three tours, at 10.30am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm. Tours depend on a specialist guide being available and may be limited when a concert or event is scheduled. Groups of fifteen or more can book in advance for any day of the week.

How long do the two museums take together?

About five hours including the walk and a coffee. The Musical Museum tour is a little over an hour; the water museum takes two hours on a quiet day and longer on a Steam Up or Train Day, when children will want to ride the railway more than once.

Is there anywhere to eat?

The Musical Museum has a café overlooking the river which is open to the public whether or not you tour the collection. At the water museum the catering arrangement has changed and the museum invites visitors to bring their own food to eat in the café space, in the garden or by the Splash Zone. Taking a picnic is the safer plan.

Sources

• London Museum of Water & Steam - Plan your visit (prices, opening times, travel, access) (checked September 2026)
• London Museum of Water & Steam - What's on (Steam Up and Train Day dates) (checked September 2026)
• London Museum of Water & Steam - The Great Engine House Project (checked September 2026)
• London Museum of Water & Steam - History of the site (checked September 2026)
• The Musical Museum - Visit Us (prices, tour times, travel) (checked September 2026)
• Food Standards Agency - food hygiene rating register (The Musical Museum, 399 High Street, rated 5) (checked September 2026)