Donated by the Department of the Environment
Rebuilt 1984 - 1988

Blythe Road Pavilion

Blythe Road Pavilion in its original location

This late Victorian building from the grounds of the Post Office Savings Bank in Hammersmith is constructed entirely of softwood, with an arcade structure supported on four posts on stone pads. The roof is slated and the walls sit on a low plinth wall of brick. The Savings Bank was built in 1899, but it is not yet known whether this gives the date for the pavilion. The large doors suggest its possible use a storage building for wheeled vehicles. Between the two World Wars it was used as a pavilion for the adjacent sports field.

Telephone Kiosk

This is a telephone kiosk dating from the 1950s. It is made of cast-iron and was cast at the same foundry as the Caversham Toilets - that of Walter MacFarlane in Glasgow.

Donated by Reading Borough Council
Rebuilt 1987 - 1991

Caversham Public Convenience

Made from cast-iron at the Saracen Foundry of Walter MacFarlane in Glasgow, this public convenience was purchased in 1906 for £301 and cost a further £750 to install. It was built primarily for the use of passengers at the electric tramway terminus at Caversham Bridge, Reading in Berkshire. The building is painted in its original cream and Brunswick green colours.

Donated by Thames Water
Rebuilt 1995 - 1998

Astleham Manor Cottage

This building originally dates from the sixteenth century as a timber-framed hall house. It was enlarged in the late seventeenth century and then just before the First World War it was moved about a quarter of a mile to make way for the Queen Mary Reservoir near Shepperton, Middlesex. By the 1990s it was threatened by vandalism and quarrying and so has moved for a second time to the Museum. The Cottage houses the Museum's library and offices and is not open to visitors except by prior arrangement for library research or pre-booked groups

Maidenhead Pavilion

The building was originally constructed as a private tennis pavilion in the grounds of the Georgian House, Lower Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire in 1926. It was moved to Riverside Gardens Park, near Boulters Lock on the River Thames in 1952 for use as a pavilion for the putting course, becoming a tea room run by the Jenner family in 1966. It is now being used as a shop and recruiting centre by the Friends of the Museum.

Donated by Robin Gates
Rebuilt 1987 - 1988

Northolt Barn

This barn, from Smith's Farm at Northolt, Middlesex, is a typical post and truss construction, built of oak and elm. When first built the barn might not have been clad, thus providing ventilation for hay, which was stored and sold to the London markets as horse fodder. The date on the left-hand door post (1595) may refer to the date of construction.

Donated by the National Society for Epilepsy
Rebuilt 1994 - 1995

Skippings Barn

Originally located at Skippings Farm, Chalfont St. Peter, the barn is home to The Hawk and Owl Trust's National Conservation and Education Centre. The building has a brick plinth, weatherboarded walls and a tile roof. It probably dates from the eighteenth century although much of the timber shows signs of re-use. The front wall originally had a protruding porch or wagon entrance similar to Hill Farm Barn. The lofted stable (now a classroom) was a later addition to the three-bay barn.

Donated by John Millburn
Rebuilt 1989 - 1990

Thame Vicarage Room

The Vicarage Room arrived in Thame, Oxfordshire, on the Great Western Railway on the 28 of November 1896; dispatched as a prefabricated building to the vicar by the Wire Wove Waterproof Roofing Company of London. The building was first erected in the vicar's garden, where it served as a meeting room for church activities. When a new larger hall was built in Nelson Street in 1913, the Vicarage Room was put up for sale and the auctioneer bought the building himself and re-erected it in his back garden in Aylesbury. The external cladding originally consisted of bitumen roofing felt reinforced with wire mesh and the internal upper wall panels were of a paper sack material painted with lead pigment.