Silver Coffee Pot

Built in the form of an early Great Western Railway "Firefly" class locomotive this silver plated coffee pot was used in the Refreshement Rooms of Swindon Station in the 1840s.

Small burners under the engines kept the coffee warm and two taps dispensed the (rather disgusting!) brew to customers.

The Swindon Station Refreshment Rooms were notoriously bad, but it was the only refreshment stop on the London to Bristol route for many years. Swindon had made history though as the first station to open refreshment rooms to the public. By the late 1890s more refreshment rooms had opened up and eventually the GWR ran a large Hotels and Refreshment Department. They served customers in hotels, stations and on the trains.

Station refreshment rooms still carry an element of nostalgia - as places to meet, people watch, and to perhaps fall in love!