Bakelite Museum


The Bakelite Museum is a collection of Bakelite and other articles belonging to Patrick Cook that currently is without a home.

History

It began as an art installation in London galleries in the 1970s and was opened as a museum in Greenwich in 1983. It includes vintage plastics such as radios, cameras, telephones, Bayko play bricks and a Bakelite coffin. The Bakelite era is also represented by non-plastic objects from the early 20th century – fridges, cookers, washing-machines, toasters and comptometers. An additional feature is the contents of one of the first, pioneering Bakelite factories in Britain, with presses, moulding machines and original steel moulds.
The collection is currently without a home. After 25 years in an 18th century watermill in Williton, Somerset, England. It is hoped it will re-open as a new more modern building in an urban location accessible to all and will address the future of plastics by learning from the past.