New AHF social investment to support Cambridge Museum of Technology

The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) is thrilled to announce it has offered a loan of £100,000 to Cambridge Museum of Technology to support the capital renovations in transforming this scheduled monument museum to a fully refurbished learning and events space with a new accessible visitor centre and café.

The museum buildings, dating from 1894, were originally used as the pumping station to move sewage away from the city to a nearby sewage farm. The buildings were extended and altered over the years to allow for greater capacity and improved technologies until the station closed in 1968. Over the last 40 years, this charitable company has rescued the site from demolition with a huge volunteer input to preserve the key buildings and machinery. To date they have held a wide range of events whilst maintaining the museum on limited opening hours, providing a volunteer run shop and ticket office, maintaining the exhibitions and machinery, and running events for c.5,000 visitors a year.

The fully transformed museum is due to open by Spring 2019 enabling them to present a varied programme of events, activities, talks and tours to satisfy existing and encourage new visitor numbers of c.15,000 all year round. The new space will also offer an area for a formal education programme with local and surrounding schools, providing opportunities for children and young people to learn about science, technology and engineering as well as an aspect of their local history.

Find out more about the museum here http://www.museumoftechnology.com/

Editor’s notes

1)  The Architectural Heritage Fund is a registered charity, working since 1976 to promote the conservation and sustainable re-use of historic buildings for the benefit of communities across the UK, particularly in economically disadvantaged areas. We are the leading heritage social investor and the only specialist heritage lender operating in the UK. We provide advice, development grants and loans.

2)  For media enquiries please contact Oliver Brodrick Ward, on 020 79250199 / oliver.brodrick-ward@ahfund.org.uk