Colchester is quietly one of England’s most attraction-packed cities. One of the longest and best preserved Roman town walls in Britain? The Essex city’s got that. A medieval castle dating back to the 11th century? Check. A much-loved zoo? Aye, that too.
And soon Colchester could be getting a new heritage attraction, as one of the city’s historic landmarks is receiving a multimillion-pound makeover. We’re talking about Balkerne Water Tower, which is England's largest municipal water tower and better known, appropriately, as ‘Jumbo’.
Fashioned out of 1.25 million bricks and 142 tonnes of iron, Jumbo was built way back in 1882-3 and in its heyday could hold a whopping 1,140 tonnes of water. While the tower has sat empty and unused since 1984, it still towers 40 metres over Colchester and has been awarded Grade II* listed status.
North Essex Heritage is taking on the task of turning Jumbo into a ‘destination venue, restaurant, visitor experience and historical interpretation space’, and the trust has already taken several steps to achieving its goals.
Back in December 2021 North Essex Heritage secured a 150-year lease for Jumbo, and in recent months it has received an impressive amount of funding. In January 2025 it was announced that Jumbo would be one of one of seven historic UK sites to receive a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, boosting it with £8 million. The site is also getting £1.1 million from the government, and in March Historic England said it would provide a further £550,000.
For those who haven’t done the quick maths, that’s the best part of nine and half million quid that has been set aside for Jumbo.
Chair of North Essex Heritage Simon Hall told BBC News that the funding ‘significantly closes the gap’ in paying for Jumbo’s restoration, saying: ‘It will provide Colchester with a fantastic accessible heritage asset, adding to Colchester's attraction as a city and tourist destination.’
Current plans for the structure feature an ‘audio-visual experience’ in Jumbo’s water tank to tell the tower’s story, and 360-degree views of Colchester. The project hopes to open the tower to the public in 2027.
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