Slough Museum first opened its doors to the public in 1986 and moved to 278-284 High Street, Slough in 1997.
Th Museum moved to The Robert Taylor Library 85 High Street, Slough in 2011.
It was then decided that Slough Library, The Thomas Gray Centre, Slough Museum, The Slough Registry Office and The West Wing Arts Centre would be accommodated by a new multi functional building called The Curve.
The Curve demonstrates effectively how the community can learn, gain skills for employment, study and engage in community and cultural activities and engage with council and democratic functions. With Births, Deaths and Marriages along with citizenship ceremonies and regular Library events and activities The Curve has proven to be an ambitious and successful venture- a hive of activity!
(Please check current opening times before travelling to visit The Curve as service delivery has temporarily changed and is under constant review. Sept 2020)
Slough Museum Pods
Slough Museum’s collection covers a period of around 10,000 years - from woolly mammoths to the present day and charts the development of the town of Slough, its public, social and domestic life, developments in science, technology, agriculture and industry and the impact of these on the town in the past, present and the future. Since collecting began in 1985, Slough Museum has acquired around 3,500 objects and documents (consisting of prints, paintings, drawings; maps; numismatics; documents; decorative art; costume; geology; archaeology; occupational tools and equipment; Slough-made products & packaging; toys and other juvenilia) and 7,500 photographs. The Museum also holds approx. 32,000 negative packets and strips from Slough Observer newspaper and a small quantity of oral history recordings, video tapes and film reels.
Slough Museum are pleased to be able to share a small but significant selection of their collection at The Curve and are working with Slough Libraries and Culture Service to support the weekly Curve Club with a monthly ‘Make with the Museum’ session. There are eight museum ‘pods’ at The Curve, filled with objects and images to tell stories across Slough’s history. Find out more @SloughMuseum
( 'Make with the Museum' sessions are currently on the last Saturday of every month, held virtually on Slough Libraries Facebook page)
Pod 1 : Origins of Slough
This pod tells us the story of how Slough became a place for people to live and displays some prehistoric objects. The word ‘Slough’ comes from the Old English for ‘marsh’ and was used because the area upon which the town was built was mostly marshland. In the 16th Century, Slough was a tiny village, and was mostly just used as a rest point for people travelling between Bath and London, a journey that used to take several days.
It wasn’t until the 1930s, when the Trading Estate started to develop, that more people moved into the area. A Mammoth tusk and tooth are displayed in this pod discovered in a local gravel pit in the 1960s.
Pod 2 : Slough Stories
You can learn a little bit about some of Slough’s buildings from the panels around the outside, including the Queensmere Shopping Centre, the Town Hall, and the Railway Station.
From top left clockwise:
Artist's impression:
Queensmere Development 1969
Queensmere Development 1965
Queensmere Observatory shopping centre in the 1980's
There’s also a little bit about the history of the public library in Slough too. Inside, you can learn about all the different places of the world that the people of Slough have come from, and listen to their personal stories. We have hosted a variety of virtual reality exhibitions in this pod featuring Immersive Computing Labs, where you could try on headsets, see sights from all over the world and practice digital 3D art.
Pod 3 : Discovery and Innovation
This pod introduces us to two very important astronomers, who lived in Slough: Sir William Herschel and his sister Caroline Herschel. William Herschel is most famous for discovering the planet Uranus in 1781, after which he was appointed the King’s Astronomer by King George III. However, he was also instrumental in the development of telescopes, which he would build in his back garden, the biggest of which was 40 feet long!
You can also read the story of Elliman’s Embrocation. A pain relief ointment developed two centuries ago in Slough, and which is still available to buy across the world today.
Pod 4 : Industrial Slough
This pod tells the story of Slough’s Trading Estate, which was first established in the 1920s.
The trading estate attracted many people to come to Slough to find work. It got so big, that it even had its own railway line and power station.
Multinational businesses that have had homes on the Trading Estate include – Johnson & Johnson; Berlie; Mars; Ladybird; Weston’s; Burton; ICI; Black and Decker and Gillette.
Pod 5 : Life and Leisure
This pod tells the history of Slough’s cinemas and dance halls. In the mid-20th Century there were three huge cinemas in Slough – The Adelphi, The Commodore, and The Granada.
In addition to the cinema, some of these leisure palaces housed ballrooms, shops, and restaurants. Slough even used to have its own Walk Of Fame, like the one in Hollywood. One of the slabs from the Walk Of Fame is on display in the pod.
Pod 6 : Room for Living
This pod houses an interactive kiosk that contains the stories of how different people arrived in Slough.
There are many stories from people of many different backgrounds and cultures, all told through their own words. There are also pictures of maps on the outside of the pod, demonstrating how the growth of population has changed the layout and organisation of the town.
Pod 7 : Slough at Home in the 1930s
This pod allows us to imagine what life would have been like in Slough in the 1930s. Prior to this, most people had lived in Timbertown, a temporary settlement provided for the growing workforce of Slough. Timbertown began to get rundown and it was demolished in the 1930s to make way for more permanent housing that would have contained many of the items you can see on display here.
Pod 8 : Victorian Slough
This pod explores Slough in Victorian times (the 19th Century). If you had little money or had fallen on hard times you were either sent to the workhouse in Eton or, if you were lucky, you may be offered a place at the Almhouses in Langley (which would be paid for by a local person of wealth). Almhouses, which were much nicer than the workhouses, tended to house elderly people, who could no longer do the hard labour required by the workhouses. It also tells us about the opening of the Great Western Railway Line, which turned Slough into a busy market town.
You can find out more about the history of our town at http://www.sloughhistoryonline.org.uk/
With thanks to Slough Museum for granting permission to publish images.