Kirkaldy Material Testing Museum
Channel: Neil Baldwin
Date: 2014-05-05

A museum which preserves a unique Victorian Materials Testing Machine in working order in the premises built to house it.

It tells the story of the Kirkaldy family who ran the business for almost 100 years and the wider history of materials testing.

It seems that landlord issues mean that the museum is under a real threat of having to close (June 2014)

More details can be found here http://www.testingmuseum.org.uk/

The museum occupies the ground floor and basement of 99 Southwark Streeet in the Southwark area just south of The Tate Modern

This building was built in 1874 specifically to house "Kirkaldy's Testing and Experimenting Works". It was a place where experiments took place on materials to determine their strength. This was done primarily using Kirkaldy's own design of testing machine.

You may be wondering why it is in this particular location rather than in a northern city or more obviously industrial area of London but 130 years ago this area was a hive of industry. Very different to what it is now. Also the location of the testing works is near to the headquarters of industry, the engineering institutions, Government and Parliament.

The Objectives of the Museum

To preserve David Kirkaldy's machine in good working order and close to its original condition

To retain as far as possible the Victorian character of the Works

To explain to the public Kirkaldy's role in developing quality control by regular monthly opening and special open days

To store and exhibit the Kirkaldy archive, and develop a library on the history of materials testing

To build and maintain a representative collection of working testing machines