The Stephenson Museum has been a CRHT project for many years, but there are several key unresolved questions:
What should the Museum be for?
Is it celebrating Robert Stephenson, rather like the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe celebrates Brunel? Or, as has been suggested, celebrating transport between London and Birmingham, which could cover the Grand Junction Canal, the L&BR/LNWR/LMS, and now HS2 (funding??!). In the second case we would need another name for it.
The emphasis would remain on Stephenson and the L&BR/LNWR. Comparison between the conduct of the L&BR in the 1830s and its route selection and land acquisition strategy, with that now being pursued for HS2 would be of great interest. Stephenson’s role would be central to the debate. HS2 may welcome the opportunity to inform an interested and divided public, both those in favour and those against, of how its route was selected and may relish the association with Stephenson.
Stephenson, important as he is, does not have the impact of Brunel with the wider public. Funding a museum could therefore be quite a task, whereas HS2 could help fund it if they had a central role.
Where should the Museum be located?
Newcastle’s South Street, where his locomotive works were located, is the place to celebrate Robert Stephenson as a mechanical engineer, but not his civil/railway engineering. The candidates for a railway museum should be located alongside or inside one of his surviving buildings, preferably one of the earliest. The main candidates would be Curzon Street station and the Winding Vaults.
The Winding Vaults appear to have a stronger claim on the following grounds:
- They will be readily accessible from Stephenson Walk, from the tourist attractions of Camden Lock and from the Regent’s Canal towpath
- They have the element of subterranean surprise that we want to associate with the area’s other remarkable heritage, including wine and beer vaults, the Catacombs, and horse tunnels
- They are part of a complex of structures of high significance, listed at Grade II*, including the Primrose Hill Tunnel east portals, the Roundhouse, and the Horse Hospital. Three of these are closely associated with Robert Stephenson. There are many other Grade II structures.
- Camden was the site of the original London station, and the site of the goods depot.
- Camden is where Stephenson lived for a decade, and close to where the detailed design work was done (although the Eyre Arms Hotel is in Westminster), work that profoundly influenced later railway engineering. This important part of Camden’s history is in danger of being forgotten as the site completes its transformation to a modern glass and steel high rise complex.
Once restored, the Winding Vaults would also be available for a variety of commercial purposes as is the Brunel Museum or, closer to home, the Roundhouse; in other words, a marriage of a charitable purpose with commercial events that support that purpose.
What should the Museum contain?
The suggestion is that the Museum contains
- Material associated with the L&BR
- Material associated with Robert Stephenson
- Model of the operation of the rope on Camden Incline
- Original working drawings of structures
- Material associated with Camden Goods Station (stables, wine and beer storage and bottling, Highland whiskey, gin distillery, coal, ice, goods interchange, connection to docks, etc)
- Material associated with the Regent’s Canal and Grand Junction Canal, linking London and Birmingham (would need to discuss with London Canal Museum)
- Material associated with HS2 first stage, particularly the tunnel from Old Oak Common and the approach to Euston.
In 1969, Arup acquired a number of original working drawings of structures for the London & Birmingham Railway at auction in London, considering it essential to keep as many as possible together in one collection, as they represent an important era of our heritage. We would hope to be able to place some of these in the museum.