Crossness Pumping Station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Crossness Pumping Station was a sewage pumping station designed by engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and architect Charles Henry Driver. It was constructed between 1859 and 1865 as part of his redevelopment of the London sewerage system. It is located at Crossness, at the eastern end of the Southern Outfall Sewer.
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The sewage was pumped up into a 27 million gallon reservoir, and was released into the Thames at high tide.
The station contains the four original pumping engines, which are thought to be the largest remaining rotative beam engines in the world, with 52 ton flywheels and 47 ton beams. The engines are named: Prince Consort, Victoria, Albert Edward and Alexandra. Currently they are not in working order.
Some of the adjoining grazing marsh provides a valuable habitat for creatures ranging from moths to small amphibians and water voles.
[edit] History
The Crossness Pumping Station was officially opened by the Prince of Wales in April 1865 and the Beam Engine House is now a Grade I Listed building featuring spectacular ornamental cast ironwork – it has been described as "A masterpiece of engineering – a Victorian cathedral of ironwork" by Nikolaus Pevsner.
The pumping station was abandoned in the 1950s, and the building and engines were left to suffer considerable vandalism and decay.
Today the pumping station is managed by the Crossness Engines Trust, a registered charity set up in 1987 to oversee the restoration project.
[edit] Restoration
None of the four engines is in a working condition. Prince Consort was the last one to run, in 1953, and it is this engine on which the current restoration activity is concentrated.
When the buildings were abandoned, the pumps and culverts below the Beam Engine House were filled with sand to reduce the risks from methane. This has meant that some 100 tons of this sand has had to be excavated from around and underneath the pumps before there was any hope of moving the beam and flywheel. Further, there was a considerable ingress of rain water which has resulted in serious rusting of the engine parts.
Restoration is well under way (see website for details) but a considerable amount of time, money and effort will be required to return the engine to steam.
[edit] Museum
It is the intention of the Trust to establish a Museum of Sanitation Engineering at the site. However, the site's Grade I and Grade II listed buildings are on the English Heritage "Buildings at Risk Register", and the Trust is putting together a Heritage Lottery Fund bid in order to raise the finance to safeguard the fabric of the buildings.
The pumping station is open to the public, by appointment only, on certain Tuesdays and Sundays for a guided tour.
On five additional days, the Prince Consort may be seen in steam, and the site is fully open to the public on these days. (See the official website for details).
[edit] See also
- Abbey Mills Pumping Stations — the equivalent pumping station for the Northern Outfall Sewer, the "twin" of Crossness
[edit] External links
- Crossness Pumping Station website
- Profile from Hidden London
- Images of England - details from listed building database (pumping house, grade I)
- Images of England - details from listed building database (south east workshops, grade II)
- Images of England - details from listed building database (south west workshops, grade II)
- This building is on the English Heritage - Buildings at Risk Register - link to entry (Buildings at Risk Register article)
