An afternoon at the Museum of Water

It’s been a while since she came to visit but my lovely little cousin Maddie came to London yesterday for a few days. Excited about having a good excuse to go and do something cultural before she indulges in a day of shopping while I am at work on Monday, I decided to take her to Somerset House, one of my favourite locations in London.

Not only is Somerset House beautiful in its own right but it also always has an exhibition that is both interesting and unconventional. We went for some quick nosh at Tom’s Deli before heading in to see the exhibition I had been dying to see for weeks: “The Museum of Water” by Amy Sharrocks.

Housed in the cavernous vaults under the courtyard. Starting in March 2013 the museum is a collection of publicly donated water and invites us to think about how precious water is and how we use it. The exhibition is essentially acts as a way of showcasing the accompanying stories of the donated bottles and containers of water.

“In a time of relative plenty in Britain, we are gathering a collection of water for future generations to consider. Clean water is more and more difficult to access across the world: will people look back at our current profligacy with horror and amazement…will the notions of fountains, swimming pools and baths become as archaic as the Broad St Pump now seems? We need to hold on to it, consider what is precious about it and how we are using it now in order to explore how we might save it for the future.”

There are currently over 300 bottles in the collection, a lot of which are on show at Somerset House at the moment. They include water from the holy river in India, a melted snowman, 20-year-old evaporated snow from Maine, melted ice from the Artic which is centuries old, a new born baby’s bath water, two different breaths, the spit of a whole family’s toothpaste, three types of wee, and water from a bedside table said to be infused with dreams. In short this place is amazing, just look at some of these!

These two were my personal favourites, for many different reasons.

Aren't they beautiful?

They also have the most amazing archive where people who have seen the exhibition but couldn’t bring in any water describe what water they would have donated.

Custodians of the Museum’s collection work tirelessly to archive a growing collection of bottles and investigate our feeling for water. They are happy to guide you around and tell you all the stories of the collection.

You can donate to the museum by bringing a bottle of water that is meaningful to you until the exhibition closes on the 29^th June 2014. Opening Hours are 10am to 6pm daily. You can find more information on the exhibition and the actual museum at http://www.museumofwater.co.uk/.