Abbey Mills Pumping Station

Abbey Mills Pumping Station
The main building in 2022
Location in London Borough of Newham
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 / 51.5307; -0.000835
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.