Exhibition design for Royal Gunpowder Mills
Sparking new excitement for a historic place
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Client
Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills
Expertise
Royal Gunpowder Mills, now a museum, has been a powderkeg of invention for 300 years
We designed an exhibition to reach new audiences — going beyond explosions to tell a story of innovation
A story of constant innovation
Building L157, the exhibition’s site, has a storied past — from industrious gunpowder mill to top secret laboratory. Strategically set by the River Lea for easy canal transport of its volatile goods, L157’s fortress-like interior walls contrast with paper-thin exterior ones — ingenuity that directed accidental explosions outwards to protect people and machinery in neighbouring bays.
Our larger than life, forward-leaning typographic exclamations served as emblems of this place's spirit of restless curiosity and constant innovation.
An immersive visitor journey
We fused informative content with jumbo-sized graphics. Important historic elements that were missing are recreated: like a life-sized beam engine on the soaring engine room wall. We dug into the Mill’s archives to create big immersive images that brought key historical moments back to life which are contrasted with panels that revel in detail. In this way the visitor’s journey moved from moments of graphic excitement, to moments of quieter scientific explanation.
A modular system for minimal intrusion
Our design enhanced the powerful atmosphere of the Grade 1 listed building without diminishing its magic. We created a modular system of bent panels with an integral hanging mechanism and aluminium rails, powder-coated in a fiery palette of orange, red and yellow. These create an orderly rhythm that contrasts with the existing structure, while respecting its historical integrity.
An easter egg embedded in the design is that the rails are the same distance apart as the railway tracks that used to run outside the building.
Cleverly, the hanger is cut into the bent edge of the panel
The beam engine in the central vaulted space
Full size model of a working incorporating mill
Lanterns — opened from the outside — kept open flames separate from the combustible atmosphere of the mill
L157 Incorporating Mill built in 1861
