Eel Pie Island Museum is now a thriving Twickenham attraction, thanks to the passion of local people and a little help from The Richmond Magazine. Celia Holman reports
May 2016 and Jenny Hopkins is sipping tea on a houseboat moored off Eel Pie Island. It is a moment laden with memories. The museum design consultant is sitting just yards from the site of the November 1996 fire that devastated the largest boatyard on the island, taking with it the studios of some 60 creative workers – designers, fine artists, wood and metal workers, photographers – and sending Jenny’s dreams up in smoke.
”I haven’t set foot on this island for almost 20 years,” she reflects. “Not since the fire. I had just invested in materials for one of the largest orders I had ever had, but in one night I lost everything.All that remained of our business was a single metal ruler. It was so awful that I never went back.”
Michele Whitby, founder of Eel Pie Island Museum and on whose houseboat Jenny now sits, knows exactly what her guest is talking about. Michele’s studio also went up in the flames.
“I didn’t have insurance. Many of us didn’t. Most of the studios were uninsurable,” she says ruefully.
Some islanders remember being awoken by the intense heat of the fire. Others recall the sound of exploding gas canisters, one of which was found the following day on mainland Twickenham.
As the blaze took hold of the largely wooden structure, firefighters struggled to contain it, with water having to be pumped directly from the river. Such was the ferocity of the fire that the entire island was evacuated in the early hours of the morning.
A fire appeal fund was set up and, through the goodwill of people in the local community and beyond, many of the artists were in part compensated for their losses.
“Joanna Lumley, Ronnie Wood, Sting, Phil Collins, Kate Moss – they all answered the call,” remembers Michele.
Two decades later it is another island-related appeal that has finally brought Jenny, of highly regarded agency RWDP, back across the bridge with the company’s director, Nik Boulting.
“We saw the article about Michele in The Richmond Magazine in early 2016, asking for mentors to assist with setting up a museum about Eel Pie Island,” explains Nik. “We remembered Michele from our time there – she’d been key in organising the fire appeal fund. And now here she was, reaching out for help with another Eel Pie project.”
Several cups of tea later, Jenny and Nik are firmly on board, signed up to guide Michele on her journey towards opening Eel Pie Island Museum. It was an easy decision, says Nik.
“We see a lot of projects in their initial stages, but Michele’s ideas were much more fully formed. It was as if the museum already existed, albeit part in storage, part on paper. Add in some funding and a venue, and she would be there. Jenny and I were delighted to offer guidance along the way.”
Fast-forward to the present and the duo’s confidence has been amply justified: in February, two years to the month after The Richmond Magazine put Michele on the front cover, Eel Pie Island Museum opened its doors to the public.
“I had always believed in the value of what I was trying to achieve,” smiles the proud curator. “But it was Nik and Jenny’s seal of approval that really put wind in my sails.”
Not that the voyage was all smooth. Soon after acquiring her new mentors, Michele was offered space to rent in a council-owned building on the main road in central Twickenham. The location was great, but there was clearly much work to be done.
“I knew the venue would work the moment I saw it. But several walls had been badly damaged by water, ceiling tiles were missing, the lighting was ancient and there was no heating. This was going to take real cash, not only to create our displays, but also to renovate the space itself.”
Fortunately, Jenny and Nik were not the only ones to have read Michele’s appeal for help in the mag. Several local businesses came forward with offers of sponsorship, while the Rugby Football Union in Twickenham allocated funds from its Home Turf initiative.
“I rather cheekily told them that people needed a reason other than rugby to visit Twickenham,” confesses Michele. “They happily agreed!”
At the same time, she signed up to the Mayor of London’s Crowdfund London programme, which also necessitated a crowdfunding initiative of her own.
“I had to do a Dragons’ Den-style pitch at City Hall. There was a huge clock behind me counting down the time I had left to convince the Mayor’s team. By the end of the evening they’d pledged £8,000, but only if I was able to match it in the next couple of months.”
Another clock was now well and truly ticking. Michele, however, was not fazed.
“I’ve lived and worked in Twickenham most of my life. It’s a great community and I knew there would be local support. We just needed to get the story out there,” she insists.
And she was right: over 150 local supporters had soon pledged funds. Nor was it generous donors alone that saw her bring the project to fruition.
“Council officers and councillors get what we’re trying to do here, they really do. Each and every council department has been so supportive – planning, legal, facilities, publicity, print. We know them all intimately!”
By ‘we’, Michele means the Museum’s team of dedicated volunteers.
“That was the other thing,” she says. “The article had people stopping me in the street, on the island, offering to help. Soon there was a team of about a dozen of us, all with such different skills to offer. And further volunteers are always very, very welcome.
“The museum holds about 100 people, but we still needed three opening parties to be able to fit all our supporters in. And I would have loved to invite more.”
Yet the happy and successful launch, eagerly awaited for so long, was swiftly overtaken by sadness. Just two weeks after the doors swung open, Trevor Baylis, island resident since the early 1970s and inventor of the wind-up radio, passed away.
Michelle Whitby & Trevor Bayliss at the Museum's Opening
“Trevor was with us every step of the way. He’d polish up his gongs, don his best suit and be wherever we needed him to be, drumming up support.”
A recreation of part of his workshops forms one of the Museum’s displays.
“Although the real thing was much, much more chaotic,” says Michele.
A revelation to many people is the space dedicated to the history of the island’s boatyards.
“Horace Walpole described Twickenham as ‘a seaport in miniature’. The island’s boatyard heritage, still alive to this day, was just crying out to be celebrated. An apprentice from the 1950s told us that you had to queue up to clock on, such was the volume of activity back then.”
And, of course, the role of the Eelpiland club at the Island Hotel – victim of an earlier conflagration – in the explosion of British music during the ‘50s and ‘60s features extensively too.
“Soon after we opened I was stopped in the street by some German tourists looking for the ‘Museum of Stones’,” laughs Michele. “It took me a moment to realise that was us!”
This summer, The Rolling Stones played Twickenham Stadium 55 years to the day after their ninth gig (out of 24) on Eel Pie Island, and the ‘Museum of Stones’ has marked the occasion with a temporary exhibit.
“The whole band was paid less than £50 for that 1963 gig, and we have their manager’s record of payment on display. Oh, and a commemorative tea towel.”
But it’s not just the enduring popularity of the Stones that is driving traffic to Richmond Road. The museum is part of an informal Twickenham heritage trail, with Marble Hill House, Orleans House, Turner’s House and Twickenham Museum all just a few extended strides away – a fact reflected in Michele’s early visitor numbers.
“We have over 600 annual ‘passport’-holding members already,” she says. “Add in our many ‘day trippers’ and there were definitely well over 1,000 people through the doors in the first four months.”
So go along and see for yourself what a shout-out in a local mag can achieve.
“Thank you, The Richmond Magazine,” says Michele cheerily. “And thank you for 20 years of being at the centre of your community. Long may we both last – with a little help from our friends, of course!”
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