Abbey Mills Pumping Station | |
---|---|
Alternative names | "The Cathedral of Sewage" |
General information | |
Status | in use |
Type | pumping station |
Architectural style | Italian Gothic |
Address | Abbey Lane, Mill Meads |
Town or city | London |
Country | England |
Coordinates | 51°31′51″N 0°00′03″W / 51.5307°N 0.000835°W |
Construction started | 1865 |
Completed | 1868 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Charles Driver, Edmund Cooper |
Engineer | Joseph Bazalgette |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Designated | 6 November 1974 |
Reference no. | 1190476 |
Abbey Mills Pumping Station is a sewage pumping station in Mill Meads, East London, operated by Thames Water. The pumping station lifts sewage from the London sewerage system into the Northern Outfall Sewer and the Lee Tunnel, which both run to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works.
The original pumping station, designed by engineer Joseph Bazalgette, Edmund Cooper, and architect Charles Driver, was built between 1865 and 1868, housing eight beam engines by Rothwell & Co. of Bolton. Two engines on each arm of a cruciform plan, with an elaborate Byzantine style, described as The Cathedral of Sewage.[1] Another of Bazalgette's designs, Crossness Pumping Station, is located south of the River Thames at Crossness, at the end of the Southern Outfall Sewer.
A modern sewage pumping station (Station F) was completed in 1997[2] about 200 metres (660 ft) south of the original station.
...one of London's most startling sites – Abbey Mills Pumping Station with its red and green Moorish domes. Built in 1863 as part of London's then new sewage system, it was nicknamed the Cathedral of Sewage.