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APPENDIX 4: DETAILED PROPOSAL FOR THE DISCOVERY CENTRE

Aims

Users

Layout

Displays

Possible Thematic Developments

Next steps

APPENDIX 4:  DETAILED PROPOSAL FOR THE DISCOVERY CENTRE

Aims

Many people are only peripherally aware that Twickenham is on the river, and many more, even those who are native to Twickenham, know little about how the Thames came to be as it is today, and the complexity of its ecology and its economy. The Centre will provide people of all ages with badly-needed information on the river and its development in the past, present and future.

There is nothing in this area which demonstrates the importance of the river to the growth of London or its importance in our day-to-day lives - for example, many people don't know that most of our drinking water comes from the river.

The aim of the Centre is to stimulate interest in the river, to make people take note of their surroundings, and to encourage them to use and appreciate the unique opportunities that Twickenham riverside provides. The Centre will raise public consciousness, and engage people and make them look anew at the world around them.

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Users

  • Casual visitors: local people, friends and families with children of all ages, and tourists including the walkers along the riverbank at weekends
  • Educational: primary and secondary schools, groups like the Thames Explorer Trust
  • Groups: local youth organisations, and interested adult groups who want to know about the river and local environment
  • Those who wish for an unusual and interesting place for a children's party or corporate reception

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Layout

Frequently repeated advice from those who are responsible for other Discovery Centres is:

1. As well as the display area, there needs to be:
   
 
  • Space for visitors to gather to hear talks, watch videos or demonstrations
  • Space for activities, like the River Game devised by the Thames Explorer Trust, which is played on a large sheet of canvas
  • Space for tables to follow-up on field work, with microscopes, note-making, etc.
  • A separate eating facility for school parties
  These may be shared resources with the Arts Facility.
   
2. In the exhibition area there needs to be:
   
 
  • A souvenir shop which sells small cheap objects
  • A tea bar for adults to relax whilst keeping an eye on the children for whom they are responsible.

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Displays

These can range from the interactive to the more didactic, requiring reading and co-operation in problem-solving. The displays at the Science Museum often fail to fulfil their function in teaching the theory behind the activity because they're too complex and inadequately explained, or, they have a long reaction-regeneration time, or, infuriatingly, they don't work at all.

Displays need to be geared towards the Key Stages in the National Curriculum, at primary and secondary level in Science, Geography and History. Good displays at this level also appeal to adults, albeit in a different way. Some will have to change from year to year, though some core displays will have an enduring attraction, like the rowing machine at Henley.

Displays at other locations that have impressed us include:

  • Hydraulic power  display - Techniquest
  • A river system with locks - wet and great fun - Science Museum
  • Water erosion - good display killed by inadequate water pressure and slow refresh rate - Natural History Museum
  • Working lock system - Techniquest
  • Speed and depth of water movement - ball races - Techniquest
  • Waterfall and fountain movements - Techniquest
  • Rowing machine - Henley
  • Living River - Millennium Dome
  • The built-up town - the historical growth of Lewes, with each district created by the people who live there - Lewes Museum.

These could be adapted and original displays could be created. For example, there has been a lot of interest shown in our discussions at the possibility of having a visual display of the local environment, e.g. nesting birds or bats, fish leaping and distant views, e.g. over Diana's Fountain to Hampton Court. The visual display can be achieved by a mixture of techniques, e.g. camera obscura, viewing platform, CCTV, telemetry or by piping some of the river through the Centre. Alongside can be visual dynamic displays showing the state of the tide and environmental measurements of the river.

As well as static and interactive displays, there are other possibilities: the Borough is rich in photographs, and many local people have photos which provide detail on the last hundred years in the borough. The Mayor salvaged valuable drawings from Tough's Boatyard, and the area has been heavily filmed and televised.  (An easy game would be 'Spot the location' using stills, e.g. the steps at Marble Hill in 'Shakespeare in Love'.)

Such material could form a database relating to river issues, history, archaeology, wildlife, and could become the archive for valuable historical material, with images, text and sound being easily accessed by visitors.

In setting up such displays it should be possible to call upon considerable local expertise in these matters. Local businesses may also sponsor individual exhibits.

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Possible Thematic Developments

A visitor's first impressions are very important. There should be a sense of occasion, of coming to an almost magical world and the theme of the Centre should be instantly apparent. Two possible themes which could work well together follow:

1.  The Thames

Using Twickenham's history, the theme would show how man responds to opportunities and how that changes the way he lives.

  • Early Settlement - influx of Celts, Iberians. Formation of English Channel. Survival as hunter-gatherers. Artefacts, flint, axes, bows
  • Importance of water. Growth of settlements around water. Primitive rafts and boats. Artefacts: wattle and daub, boat shapes
  • Water transport - a way of carrying great weight, fords, early bridges, flash locks. Meaning of place names e.g. Wallingford.  Artefacts: examples of goods moved, water flow models, boat displacement, models to show ease of moving weights by water
  • Conflicts of interest - bridges and ferries, water mills and locks, fishing and boating, leisure and commercial. Artefacts: archive material, planning games and re-enactments
  • Tides - effect of building and dredging on water flow. Explanation of rotation of tides, effect of Richmond half-tide lock. The problem of sewage. Artefacts: Tidal clock, water aeration, current circulation models, what happens when the river going downstream meets the tide coming upstream?
  • Leisure on the Thames - effect of half-tide lock on Richmond, sport on the river, types of boats, electric launches, water entertainments, growth of Eel Pie Island, tea dances, the Rolling Stones, Phil Collins, Robert Wyatt and others. Artefacts: old newspapers and photographs
  • Wildlife - could be a start  for nature walks. Artefacts: live animals
  • The future - changing climate, London sinking, flood defences, effect of northerly gales. Artefacts: Flood contour models, exercises in planning for the future.

2.  Conservation of Resources

Using local examples, the object will be to show the importance of conservation of resources:

  • What is energy? Prime source of energy. Artefacts: models to show radiation of sun to earth and dissipation of heat from earth into space
  • Storage of primary energy in land and sea masses. Storage in plant life. Artefacts: measuring land and water temperatures. Heat from compost.
  • Plants as energy, human intake and output of energy. Decay of organic material into oil, coal and gas. Artefacts: natural materials, measuring energy required to move a rowing boat and food input required.   Observation of the efficient use of energy in birds and animals. Energy used in growing meat compared to vegetables.
  • Non-renewable energy: expiry date for coal, oil, gas and metals. Artefacts: examples of renewable materials (bone, leather etc.). Is a self-sufficient Twickenham possible?
  • Renewable energy - waves, wind and solar. Artefacts: solar panels on roof, measuring the energy in Teddington weir.
  • Conversion of energy from one form to another - steam engines, clockwork radio, dynamo torch. Making more efficient use of human energy. Artefacts: winding up clockwork (gramophones, clocks), bicycles
  • Entropy and insulation - the cooling universe, how animals control body temperature, insulation and the human body. Artefacts:insulation materials, thermal imaging
  • Consumption of energy - graphs showing consumption of energy, how it has increased this century.    Total energy required to produce familiar objects. Artefacts: experiments on model house, problems in how to reduce energy consumption drawing up a balance sheet for Twickenham.

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Next steps

1. Consult with the staff of Techniquest and/or other consultants about the realities of establishing and running the Discovery Centre
   
2. Network with other members of the Kids Clubs Network and use their material and templates for drawing up a business plan and planning the Centre
   
3. We should work with the Head of Education and local schools and teachers' groups to ascertain their needs
   
4. Consult with Alison Taylor at Thames Explorer Trust, and other local persons who have a great deal of experience in setting up courses and the practicalities of running them
   
5. Consult widely with local people about what they would like to see in the Centre, and ways in which their interest in and enthusiasm for the river can be increased
   
6. Search out sources of funding.

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