A History That Flows On. 140 Years of Modern Waterworks and Sewers in Warsaw

From 1 to 30 September 2026 the Royal Łazienki Museum’s Open-Air Gallery on ul. Agrykola showed photographs and historical designs of the water and sewer network begun by the Lindleys, for the 140th anniversary of Warsaw’s waterworks.

The Royal Łazienki Museum on the exhibition:

In 1886, water from a modern supply network flowed into Warsaw’s properties for the first time. To mark the jubilee of MPWiK w m.st. Warszawie S.A., we invite you to the exhibition “A History That Flows On. 140 Years of Modern Waterworks and Sewers in Warsaw”, which shows the development of the city’s infrastructure through photographs and historical designs.

The modern water and sewer system was the work of the English engineers William Lindley and his eldest son, William Heerlein Lindley. The infrastructure they designed gave Warsaw one of the most modern sewer systems in Europe at the time. The growth of the network was of real importance for sanitary conditions, the health of the residents and the further development of the city.

The exhibition in the Open-Air Gallery on ul. Agrykola presents photographs and designs documenting the successive stages in the development of Warsaw’s waterworks and sewers. The archive material shows how the city’s infrastructure changed and the technical solutions that, decade after decade, answered the changing needs of a growing Warsaw.

The exhibition lets you trace the history of the system begun by the Lindleys and see how, as the city grew, the ways of supplying water and of carrying away and treating sewage changed.

“A History That Flows On” is a story of infrastructure that, over generations, has become one of the basic elements of how Warsaw works.

(Translated from the museum’s Polish text.)

What to expect

This was a set of outdoor panels, not a gallery room. The museum gave the venue as the Open-Air Gallery on ul. Agrykola, the same street that gives the museum its own address (ul. Agrykoli 1). Warsaw’s water company (MPWiK, Wodociągi Warszawskie), in a statement of 10 September 2026 (in Polish), pinned it down: inside the park from the ul. Agrykola side, at the end of Aleja Chińska (Chinese Avenue).

According to the water company, the jubilee show as a whole, in Łazienki and on the Filtry fence, had several dozen photographs with extensive captions, and the museum also listed historical designs of the network. Admission was free, the panels stood in the park, and the gardens were open daily 6:00-22:00 (6 AM - 10 PM).

At the same time the water company’s jubilee photographs also hung on the fence of the Filtry water treatment works on ul. Koszykowa in the Ochota district. The description of the show remains on the Royal Łazienki Museum’s page (in Polish only).

Context

Warsaw switched on its modern waterworks in 1886, under the city president Sokrates Starynkiewicz, at a time when the city was part of the Russian Empire. The system was designed by the British engineer William Lindley, who had already built networks in Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main, and its construction was led by his son William Heerlein Lindley. The heart of it, the Filtry station on ul. Koszykowa, is still in operation.

Łazienki has hosted a waterworks show before: in summer 2017 the same Open-Air Gallery on ul. Agrykola displayed “Wodociągi Warszawskie - alfabet fotograficzny” (Warsaw Waterworks - a photographic alphabet).

Updates

• 2026-10-01 - the exhibition closed on 30 September 2026; the museum announced no extension (source: exhibition page, list of open-air exhibitions).

See also

• Museum of Water Supply and Sewage - the collection inside the Lindley Filters complex, where the story on the Łazienki panels begins.
• Royal Łazienki Museum - palaces, tickets and free Fridays (every Friday free entry to the Palace on the Isle and other buildings).

After the show

The museum announced no further venue for the show and no catalogue. You can see where the Lindleys’ story starts at the Museum of Water Supply and Sewage on the Filtry site, which admits visitors on open days only, so check its dates before you go.

A current Royal Łazienki show in the same format:

• “Stills from the Film Lalka (The Doll)” - until 31 October 2026; also free, in the Open-Air Gallery along Aleje Ujazdowskie. Stills from the new adaptation of Prus’s novel, set in Warsaw in 1878-1879, a few years before the Lindley network was switched on.

Other current Warsaw shows on how infrastructure changed the city:

• “Tory w zgliszczach Warszawy. Rebuilding the Railway, the Railway Rebuilding” - at the Station Museum, no closing date announced by the museum; the post-war rebuilding of Warsaw’s railway, shown inside a historic EW51 electric carriage with photographs from the 1940s.
• “No Hands. How the Bicycle Changes Warsaw” - at the Wola Museum until 2 July 2027; the bicycle as a technology that for over 150 years has changed how people move around the city and how they imagine modernity.

Museum profile: Royal Łazienki Museum.