Abbey Mills pumping station was originally built between 1865 and 1868 and was designed by engineer Joseph Bazalgette, Edmund Cooper, and architect Charles Driver. Its purpose was to pump the sewage from London's low level sewers up to the high level sewage processing plant on the Thames estuary. It is designed in a cruciform plan, with an elaborate Byzantine style, described as The Cathedral of Sewage.
It would have originally used huge steam driven beam engines which were removed during the 1930's and replaced by electric pumps, which for some reason look a lot like the Daleks from Dr. Who. The originally service platforms are all still in place and it is easily possible to see where the beam engines would have once been, one in each "corner" of the building making a total of four.
I understand that the electric pumps are only now used during times of heavy rains and provide more of a back up service to the modern main pumping station a little way down the road.
A really special place to be in...
It would have originally used huge steam driven beam engines which were removed during the 1930's and replaced by electric pumps, which for some reason look a lot like the Daleks from Dr. Who. The originally service platforms are all still in place and it is easily possible to see where the beam engines would have once been, one in each "corner" of the building making a total of four.
I understand that the electric pumps are only now used during times of heavy rains and provide more of a back up service to the modern main pumping station a little way down the road.
A really special place to be in...