The Pumphouse Educational Museum

The Pumphouse Educational Museum incorporates The Rotherhithe Heritage Museum and the Lavender Pond & Nature Park, and is a unique resource in the Surrey Commercial Docks area of Rotherhithe. The Pumphouse was built in 1929 to regulate the water level in the Dock System. When the Surrey Docks closed in 1970, 350 acres became derelict and 270 years of tradition came to an end. The building was refurbished in 1989 and the Heritage Museum opened in 1991.
As a charity, overseen by a board of Trustees, the Head of Centre in the last eight years has ensured the success of the project by expanding the education for schools programme, raising the profile and managing the progress of the Centre, gaining support of grant funding organisations and in doing so, broadening and developing its potential.
In expanding the education service to include those children with special needs, providing education in ecology and conservation for and setting up a reminiscence and communication service for older people in residential homes, the Pumphouse has achieved its original aims.

The Pumphouse Educational Museum 1992 - Present
Funded by the London Borough of Southwark

The Pumphouse is a visually exciting, stimulating and unique educational venue for all ages and abilities awarded a Southwark Civic Award for its work, in 2002 and 2003. Frequently oversubscribed by schools, visitors both local and global, it provides an insight into the past, exhibits intriguing displays of everyday artefacts from homes of the twentieth century and houses the Rotherhithe Heritage Museum, artefacts from the foreshore of the River Thames dating from Roman times to the present day.
A distinctive venue housed in the pumping station of the Surrey Commercial Docks and adjacent to the riverside, the museum encourages older visitors to reminisce and share memories of a bygone age. It fosters enthusiasm in children to learn through exploration and allows casual visitors to recall features and memories of their childhood homes. An authentic jukebox plays a taste of the wide variety of musical records from the 1950's whilst the 6' replica of Queen Elizabeth II wedding cake is truly awesome. Local older people remember Peek Freans, the company that made the cake, and delicious biscuits, now a lost industry of Bermondsey.

A charitable organisation, Charity number 802967, overseen by Trustees and managed by the Head of Centre (full time) who teaches four days per week, the Pumphouse Educational Museum provides the following services:

  Rotherhithe Heritage Museum

  Education Service for mainstream and SEN schools

  Reminiscence and Communication for older people in care suffering from dementia

  Young Archaeologists’ Club