Event Page- Author Talk - London Museum of Water and Steam

Author Talk:

Steam engines, Kew and the Victorian Sanitary Crisis

Thursday August 27: 18:00-19:00

Join us at the London Museum of Water & Steam on Thursday August 27 for an informative talk from author James Douet.

Steam powered waterworks were the key technology which, in the 19th century, pulled industrial cities back from the disease and filth that threatened urban life. James Douet’s 2024 book ‘The Architecture of Steam’ showed how the dramatic design of Victorian waterworks reflected the high importance that society of the day put on clean and wholesome water.

Awarded the Association for Industrial Archaeology’s prize for outstanding scholarship, the book places the London pumping stations, and especially the Kew Bridge waterworks, at the forefront of this global technological advance. The illustrated talk connects steam engineering, Victorian architecture and the day-to-day operation of a pumping station in a vivid narrative, and explains why Kew Bridge and Kempton Park should together be considered for UNESCO’s World Heritage list as the world’s outstanding sites of the water industry.

James Douet worked for English Heritage preparing listing recommendations before moving to live in Barcelona in 1996, he is involved with both TICCIH and ICOMOS, and assessed the successful World Heritage bid of Augsburg Water Management System. Other publications include Going Up in Smoke for SAVE Britain’s Heritage, and in 2025 The Meaningful City, Reading Barcelona’s Urban Landscape.

Tickets are £3 for members, and £5 for nonmembers. Plus add a copy of the James Douet’s 2024 book ‘The Architecture of Steam’ to your order for £20 (regularly £38) and we will have it ready for you on the day of the talk.