On Monday 8 September 2026, Cambridge Museum of Technology hosted a visit from the Association for Industrial Archaeology, as part of the AIA's 2026 annual conference and tours of industrial heritage in East Anglia.
Welcome to Hot Rocket - our new café operator
We're delighted to announce that Hot Rocket has been appointed as the new operator of the café in our Lower Yard on the Riverside, following an open tender.
Hot Rocket is a small independent business led by Andrew Taylor, who brings over 30 years' experience in hospitality, from Michelin-starred restaurants to cafés, food vans and festivals. Hot Rocket has spent years serving film sets, events and locations across the country -and the Lower Yard will be its first permanent home.
Come and try it from Tuesday 8 September
Hot Rocket will start on Tuesday 8 September with a mobile trailer on the Lower Yard, serving coffee and offering samples of their food so you can try what's coming. The permanent café in the Lower Yard building will follow once the space has been fitted out.
The full offer will be great barista coffee, speciality teas and cold drinks, freshly baked pastries and cakes, and a lunch menu of deli sandwiches, salads and grab-and-go options - a daytime, family-friendly, alcohol-free café for museum visitors, families, riverside walkers and neighbours alike.
Andrew Taylor of Hot Rocket said:
"We're beyond excited to have won the tender for the café at Cambridge Museum of Technology and to be putting down some permanent roots so close to home.
"From the beginning, we really connected with the Museum team's vision for the Lower Yard and the wider site. We want the café to feel like it genuinely belongs here, and we've got plans to give the space a new lease of life while taking inspiration from the Museum's industrial heritage and the history that surrounds it.
"Food and drink will be very much what people know us for: great barista coffee, speciality teas and cold drinks, freshly baked pastries and cakes, alongside a really decent lunch offering of deli sandwiches, salads and plenty of grab-and-go options. We're a small independent business, and working with brilliant local producers and suppliers wherever we can will continue to be a big part of what we do.
"What makes this opportunity particularly exciting is the sense of collaboration around the site. We're looking forward to working closely with the Museum, as well as having Scott's and Calverley's as neighbours, and becoming part of the brilliant community that already exists around Riverside.
"We've spent years taking Hot Rocket to film sets, events and locations all over the country, so having a permanent home somewhere as unique as this feels like a really exciting next chapter for us."
Why Hot Rocket
The tender was open and attracted multiple bids from a range of independent operators, each assessed against the same published criteria. What impressed us about Hot Rocket's proposal was a café concept genuinely rooted in the site and its heritage, a food offer that caters for the needs of all our visitors, and a clear appetite to work collaboratively with the Museum and its neighbours on the future of the Lower Yard. It stood out for how clearly it addressed our vision for the site — and we believe it's a café people will want to come back to.
Hot Rocket follows Kerb Kollective, whose six years at the Museum came to an end on Monday. The business Rory and his team built here is genuinely impressive, and we wish them every success at Ditton Walk and beyond.
Coffee this week
Coffee continues at the Riverside through the transition:
Tuesday 1 – Thursday 3 September: Lower Yard closed for handover
Friday 4 – Sunday 6 September: Gnawtybites, a local independent, serving coffee and pastries from their van (this weekend only)
Monday 7 September: Lower Yard closed
From Tuesday 8 September: Hot Rocket's trailer opens
Why the café matters
The Museum is a charity run almost entirely by volunteers, caring for a Victorian pumping station and a nationally important Scheduled Monument. The income we receive from the café goes directly back into keeping this remarkable site open for everyone -a café that thrives here is part of how a place like this survives.
Follow Hot Rocket at instagram.com/hotrocketfood and check back here for opening hours and news as the café takes shape. We hope to see you on the 8th.
Here at CMT, we are proud of being a dog friendly museum. We are big believers that heritage is for everyone, and that includes our furry friends! We welcome all creatures to the Museum when we open, but we are also fortunate enough to have a number of dogs that we call are own.
These pooches are all regulars to our site, and if you make your way to us when we are open, you might just get a chance to spot one of them!
Samantha Fox
Samantha Fox, just like her namesake, is a born model.
Brought to us by our volunteer Andy (‘New Andy’, not to be confused with ‘Old Andy’), Samantha is the poster girl of the Museum thanks to her ability to always find her light and strike a pose whenever she sees a camera! Samatha often hangs out at the Museum over the summer (or whenever her humans go on holiday and leave her in Andy’s capable hands) and will always be here whenever she hears the word ‘photoshoot’.
Samantha Fox is a very good girl.
Wilf
Wilf is a handsome pooch who comes and helps on our ticket desk with his human, Richard.
Like his owner, Wilf supports some fabulous hair and helps to make us a fashion forward musuem. Wilf enjoys lounging behind the ticket desk, having treats and welcoming all the dogs who come and visit the Museum.
Wilf is a very good boy.
Flo
Coming with her human Leila, Flo is a classy lady who loves to look stylish (she HATES to put her raincoat on, much prefering to support a more ‘natural’ look). She is poised, playful and enjoys saying hello to anyone who wants to see her.
Flo is a very good girl.
George
George (Georgie Porgie to his friends) is a very patient fellow who comes with his own steam engines! A member of the Allen family, George helps to run engines, William and Bostin, and does a fine job of doing it.
In between helping with the engines, George can be found dozing, looking for people to play with, and hoping someone will giving him a good scratch.
Georgie is a very good boy.
Odin
The newest addition to the team is Odin who is often at the museum with his human, Joanne, our Community and Visitor Engagement Officer.
Odin loves tennis balls, sleeping, and saying ‘hello’ to EVERYONE he meets. He is often walking around smelling the machines, and loves to lay in our Valve Yard and watch everything on the river go by.
Odin is a very good boy.
Remembering Lulu
Lulu was our longest serving museum dog and she certainly put in her hours over the years.
Lulu belonged to her best friend Andy (‘Old Andy’, not to be confused with Samantha Fox’s human, ‘New Andy’), and was here most steam days to help support our stokers at the boiler. Lulu’s favourite activites included eating absolutely everything, snoozing by the warm boiler, and letting everyone know that she owned the place (the Museum belonged to Lulu and she was kind enough to let us open it to the public).
Lulu was a very good girl and we all miss her dearly.
Museum volunteers to present at Association for Industrial Archaeology
We're pleased to share that we've now opened a tender for the café at the Museum, and we'd like to set out clearly what we're looking for.
The café will be a daytime, family-friendly space - welcoming to visitors, families, dog-walkers, neighbours and everyone who enjoys this corner of the riverside. It will serve barista coffee, fresh bakery and light lunches, and it will be alcohol-free. That character matters to us, and it's written into the tender itself.
The café will be run by an independent operator, not by the Museum. The tender is open, and we welcome proposals from established operators and new entrants alike, including local businesses. Every bid will be assessed against the same criteria.
As a charity caring for a Victorian pumping station and a nationally important Scheduled Monument, everything we earn from the café goes back into keeping this site open, cared for and maintained for use by everyone. We're looking for an operator who wants to work with us to make this site thrive.
Operators interested in finding out more, or making a declaration of interest, can contact Nick Plaister at nick.plaister@museumoftechnology.com.