Step off the 237 at the "Musical Museum" stop
The bus sets you down almost at the door of 399 High Street, Brentford, on the north side of the Thames near Kew Bridge. Push inside and the first thing you notice is that the room is full of instruments that are not sitting behind glass — they are working, and someone is about to make them play. This is an independent charity museum founded in 1963 by Frank Holland MBE, run almost entirely by volunteers: the person who takes your admission may be the same person who later sits down at a keyboard and talks you through what it does.
General admission is bought from reception on the day. Guided tours run at 10.30am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm on the days the museum is open — Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 4pm — and last just over an hour, led by volunteer guides who combine demonstrations with the story behind each machine. Tours depend on specialist guide availability and can be limited or unavailable when events are scheduled, so it is worth planning your arrival around one. You are also free to wander the collection on your own afterwards.
Hear a piano play a pianist who is no longer at the keyboard
The collection is arranged over three galleries plus a concert hall, and it traces how music has been captured, replayed and generated across the centuries — from mechanical inventions to the present day. On a tour you meet the objects one at a time, and the demonstrations are the point:
- A piano that reproduces performances recorded by famous pianists
- A self-playing violin
- An Edison Phonograph
- A jukebox playing 78rpm records
- Self-playing pianos, pipe organs, music boxes, gramophones and keyboards
- An electronic organ credited with changing the sound of pop music
The museum holds over 20,000 paper music rolls, and the collection is described as nationally significant. What you take away is not a list of dates but the sound of a machine doing something you assumed only a person could do.
Meet the Mighty Wurlitzer, then walk into the Korg Gallery
Two rooms anchor the visit at opposite ends of the story. The Mighty Wurlitzer cinema organ was designed to accompany silent films and later became an attraction in its own right — the museum still stages silent film screenings, so you can hear it doing the job it was built for. At the other end, a gallery devoted to the history of music synthesis and Korg electronic instruments, a recent addition, picks up where the mechanical era leaves off. If you want to go deeper into it, an optional alternative tour focusing on the Korg Gallery in detail may be offered in place of the standard tour.
Beyond the galleries, the museum stages special tours, concerts and silent film screenings, and hosts exhibitions and musical and community events through the year. There is a 250-seat concert hall on site, hired out for everything from meetings and rehearsals to parties and weddings — which tells you something about how seriously this place takes the business of listening.
Break for the River View Café, then cross to Kew Bridge
The River View Café looks out over the Thames and is open to the general public even if you are not visiting the collection — a reasonable stop on a walk along Brentford High Street, which forms part of Cycleway 9 connecting Kensington Olympia and Brentford Town Centre via Hammersmith and Chiswick. There is a small cycle rack in front of the museum, and a gift shop inside.
Getting there is straightforward by public transport: District Line to Gunnersbury and then bus 237 or 267, alighting at the "Musical Museum" stop about ten minutes later; or Piccadilly Line to South Ealing and bus 65, which passes the museum. By train, take London Waterloo to Kew Bridge via Clapham Junction, turn right out of the station and walk five minutes. By car, the museum is accessible from the M4 and the North and South Circular roads, but the car park is small with limited, non-guaranteed spaces — you can reserve one for a small fee via Just Park, and there is other independent and paid parking locally. Accessible toilets and parking are available on site.
If you have time left in the day, the London Museum of Water and Steam is nearby, and the museum's own setting close to Kew Bridge puts you within easy reach of the river for the rest of an afternoon.
Go on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday and take the tour
Because the museum opens only Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm, and because the tours run at set times and depend on volunteer guides, the shape of your visit is worth deciding before you leave home. Aim to arrive for one of the three tour slots, let a volunteer demonstrate the instruments to you, then stay on to wander the galleries at your own pace and finish in the café by the river. Group visits of fifteen or more, and venue hire, can be arranged in advance for any day of the week — useful if you are organising for a club, a society or a school. Check the museum's site for what is on before you travel, and build the day around it.