Museum cafe closed after 2am leak drama

THE director of the River & Rowing Museum in Henley has praised his staff for their efforts after a leak happened in the middle of the night.

The museum in Mill Meadows had to close for two hours on Friday after an air conditioning unit leaked, which dripped on to a smoke alarm and set it off.

Director Steve O’Connor said a group of staff went to the museum at 2am after the alarm went off and isolated one of the sensors. They then mopped up.

Their work meant the museum lost just two hours of trading on Friday morning, reopening at noon instead of the usual 10am, but the café had to close for the whole day. Mr O’Connor said: “We had a leak from the Rowing Gallery that went down into the café and it slightly flooded the seating area.

“Our alarm went off at 2am so we had the team respond. They could see there was a leak and managed to isolate everything.

“They were on site from 2am, fixing everything, tidying up the leak and the café itself and managed to isolate one of the sensors.It was an incredible team effort and to only have lost two trading hours was a great effort and I am pleased the café was able to reopen on Saturday.”

The museum closed for nine months in 2022 to allow for a £1 million refurbishment, which included replacing its leaking roof.