The Engineer’s House, at Cheddar’s Lane in Cambridge, is to be leased to Cambridge Museum of Technology as part of a 25 year agreement, after the museum approached the council to see whether it could occupy it.
The attractive Victorian property was built in 1898 and was home to the engineer in charge of the pumping station housing the steam engines that kept the city’s sewage flowing until 1968.
The Engineer’s House was subject to a fire in March last year and the museum intends to refurbish the property to bring it back to its former glory, integrating it into the wider museum site and using it for exhibition space, offices and meeting areas.
Cllr Kevin Price, Executive Councillor for Housing, said: “I’m really pleased that we have been able to agree a mutually beneficial arrangement for The Engineer’s House with the Museum of Technology.
“The museum will now be able to carry out much-needed repairs to the property, to bring it back to life, adding to the excellent museum facilities that so many people visit each year.
“The council will receive rental that we will put back into providing much needed social housing for people in desperate need.”
John Little, Chair of the Board of Trustees at Cambridge Museum of Technology, said: “We are very grateful to the city council for this opportunity to conserve the Engineer’s House and reunite it with the historic pumping station of which it was once an integral part.
“It will allow us to document and celebrate the lives of the Victorian engineers, create an archive hub for Cambridge industrial history and enhance facilities for the community.
“We are also grateful to members of the local community who have strongly supported this project.”
For more information about Cambridge Museum of Technology visit: www.museumoftechnology.com
_________________________________________________