Museum Warehouse Photo Report – The Science Museum Group Collection In The Hawking Building

London’s Science Museum, established in 1857 to house exhibits from the Patent Museum and the 1851 Great Exhibition, has long been a major attraction on London’s museum circuit. Its extensive collection of scientific, engineering, and aeronautical material is professionally curated to an exceptional standard, making it one of the great museums of its kind anywhere in the world. It’s also a perennial highlight of any trip to London for me.

Inevitably, any great museum can only show a selection of its assets at any one time, and the Science Museum, and its associate museums (the National Railway Museum in York, Locomotion in Shildon in County Durham, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford and the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester) are no exception. These reserve items are now stored in a purpose-built modern facility on a disused RAF base near Swindon, in Wiltshire, west of London, at the Science and Innovation Park.

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to visit on a guided tour of some of the treasure trove. Bear in mind as you view this photo report that this is effectively a warehouse and most definitely not a curated museum gallery, so the range of items was wide and juxtapositions sometimes contrasting. That just added to the wonderment and eye widening, frankly. So, let’s take a quick amble through, starting with some of the cars.

A 1965 NSU Spider –  seemingly unremarkable but actually the precursor of the Wankel experiment. Some 2000 of these were built from 1963 to 1967.

The engine was rear mounted (uniquely for a Wankel?) and gave around 50bhp, and ran to 7000 rpm.

Every item has a unique number and there is a publicly accessible online database to provide more detail.

A 1967 Amphicar, built using a Triumph Herald drivetrain but with a power take off to drive the propellers and better waterproofing.

One owner was President Lyndon Johnson, who used one to entertain, or frighten on occasion, guests to his rural retreat.

1906 Ford Model N, built in Detroit, and a 1912 Model T assembled in Manchester from American components.

A 1902 Wolseley 7.5hp, from the days when Wolseley’s technical lead was Herbert Austin. Behind is a 1986 Trabant from East Germany.

A 1910 Renault type AF 8hp, configured as a taxi and used for that purpose into the 1930s. At the time this car was built, motor taxis overtook horsedrawn cabs in quantity, and were also used to get troops to the Western Front of the Great War.

This is a 1929 Crossley Shelsey (the UK Crossley, not the US Crosley) sold at a premium to any Ford or Morris and aimed at a higher point in the market. £495 in 1929, or £28,000 now.

Alongside was a 1935 Crossley Regis, one of the last generation before Crossley concentrated on commercial vehicles and buses before being subsumed into AEC and then Leyland.

Sometimes, the presence of an object in the collection puzzled. I can see a case for the Model T and Model N, the NSU and Amphicar, maybe for the Renault Taxi but a run of the mill 1932 Hillman Minx in this collection puzzled me.

Still, it’s there and I didn’t take it home despite the temptation.

A 1965 Humber Super Snipe. Yes the engine’s pedigree was interesting, but is it really Science Museum material?

Perhaps Sir William Rootes wanted to support such a worthwhile institution? Alongside the Humber is a Volga Mark21K from 1965

Someone whose work is rightly covered by the museum is Dr Frederick Lanchester.

Not only is 1937 Lanchester 18 in the collection, but so are some of his aerofoil designs and some of his papers, published books and aeronautical models and experiments. The bus behind was a hydrogen fuel cell powered experiment for London.

And yes, that is a Vauxhall Victor F Type….

…a Ford Cortina Mk1 and a 1966 Wartburg 312 from East Germany.

There were some trucks too.

This 1931 Foden is a representative of the first commercially successful range of diesel powered trucks in the UK.

A 1968 Foden S21 6×2 flatbed, with a distinctive and once familiar cab design and period appropriate colour scheme.

Like I said, this is really a warehouse – you get the idea here.

This is a 1932 electric van built by Harrods’ own workshops for urban deliveries and restored and donated after many years service. For many years, these vans featured in every children’s book of unusual trucks, having been used by Harrods from the early 1920s to the late 1960s.

A bit more science museum here maybe – this is a 1955 Sno-Cat used on the first motorised crossing of Antarctica.

Dating from 1948 and the birth of the British National Health Service is this Leyland Beaver Mobile Chest X ray, used to provide chest X rays quickly to large groups (workplaces, schools and the like) to assess those likely to need a fuller examination as part of the fight against TB and other chest conditions.

And now the fire engines.

A 1943 Austin based fire engine fitted with a turntable ladder and intended to be first respond to the London Blitz and the later V2 flying bombs. It ended its service days at the Rowntree Chocolate factory in York.

A generation later this was the default British fire engine  –  a 1958 Dennis F12 with Merryweather fire fighting equipment.

A 1970 Thornycroft Nubian Major airfield fire tender, used at London Heathrow and latterly Glasgow Prestwick.

The last AA breakdown service motorcycle and sidecar unit, built in 1958 and used until 1968 when the Mini van replaced it. The bike is a BSA M12.

Now, Britain is often seen as the leading nation in the technical arms race that is Formula 1 (7 of 11 teams are based in the UK, including some with very un British names, like Mercedes-AMG, Red Bull and Alpine Renault) but it was not always like that. A British driver in a British car did not win a championship race until 1957, and this 1955 Connaught Type B is part of the build up.

This car, driven by Tony Brooks, won the non Championship Syracuse Grand Prix in 1955, the first such win for a British car and driver for over 30 years.

Something else that seemed more Science Museum than an old car or motorbike was this piece – an element of the fuselage of the de Havilland Comet 1 lost off the Italian coast in 1954. The fuselage was salvaged from the seabed and this section showed evidence of the metal fatigue failure at the corner of the aerial hatches of the type that led to the structural break up of the airframe.

The Blue Steel standoff nuclear weapon was designed to be carried by the Avro Vulcan ands this is a test vehicle. It was built in 1960 and Blue Steel was in service from 1963 to 1970. We were assured it was fully inert….

This is an Enigma machine, the redoubtable German code system used in the 1930s and 1940s. This example was actually supplied by the Germans to Switzerland and has been slightly derated from the ultimate four rotor specification.

Modern science is not neglected – one of Doctor Who’s Daleks was taking a well earned rest, hence he has been disarmed. This one was born in 1968.

The Hawking Building is named after perhaps the 20th century’s greatest physicist, Professor Stephen Hawking. Few people did more for science and to contribute to public awareness of science than Hawking and it seems only appropriate that he be noted here. Hawking’s office equipment and many of his belongings were gifted to the museum after his death, including his microwave oven.

The notice on Professor Hawking’s table says “Do not sit – this is an object“. Apparently someone did sit to eat their lunch!