Musical Museum, Brentford facts for kids
The Musical Museum is a super cool place in Brentford, London. It's a museum filled with amazing musical instruments, and it's also a concert hall! You can find it just a short walk from Kew Bridge railway station.
This museum has a huge collection of instruments that play themselves. Imagine a piano playing a song all by itself! It also has one of the biggest collections of old musical rolls in the world. You can see rare and working examples of instruments like player pianos, which are pianos that play from a roll, and orchestrions, which are like whole orchestras in one machine. There are also special reed organs and even violin players.
Some of the biggest and most impressive things to see include a fully fixed-up Wurlitzer theatre organ. This organ can play by itself using a roll, and it's even connected to a Steinway grand piano! There's also a huge 12-rank residence organ that plays music from rolls.
The museum has three main areas where all these instruments and displays are set up. There's also a big concert hall that can turn into a cinema, fitting up to 230 people. And if you get hungry, there's a cafe too!
Most of the people who work at the museum are volunteers, which means they give their time to help out. The museum is open on Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and on Bank Holidays. If you visit, you can join a tour guide who will show you how the instruments work. Tours usually start at 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 3:00 PM.
History of The Musical Museum
The Musical Museum was started in 1963 by a man named Frank Holland. He was given an award called an MBE for his work. Frank believed it was really important to save and play musical instruments that could play by themselves. He first called it The British Piano Museum.
In 1975, Frank was on a TV show called 'Going Places'. He talked about how he read an article that said there were about 800 empty churches in Britain. He decided to find one that would be perfect for his instruments. He found an old church called 'St. George's' in Brentford.
Later, Frank wrote a book about his experiences called 'A Boxful of Rolls'. The museum stayed in that church for many years. Then, in 2009, it moved to a new building nearby, which is where it is now.
