Crossness Pumping Station is a former sewage pumping station designed by the architect Charles Henry Driver. Constructed between 1859 and 1865 by William Webster [3072 x 4096]
Crossness Pumping Station is a former sewage pumping station designed by the architect Charles Henry Driver. Constructed between 1859 and 1865 by William Webster [3072 x 4096]
Crossness Pumping Station is a former sewage pumping station designed by the architect Charles Henry Driver for the Metropolitan Board of Works’s chief engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. It is located at Crossness Sewage Treatment Works, at the eastern end of the Southern Outfall Sewer and the Ridgeway path in the London Borough of Bexley. Constructed between 1859 and 1865 by William Webster, as part of Bazalgette’s redevelopment of the London sewerage system, it features spectacular ornamental cast ironwork, described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as “a masterpiece of engineering – a Victorian cathedral of ironwork”. It was decommissioned in 1956. Subsequently the building has been extensively restored and was opened to the public in 2016.
London’s population grew rapidly in the first half of the 19th century, from roughly 1 million in 1800 to 2.5 million in 1850. This caused numerous problems including, of course, with sewage. Up until the 1860’s London’s sewage system was dumped into the Thames. Plans and solutions were proposed and discussed for decades but nothing could ever be agreed upon in Parliament. Joseph Bazalgette, the chief engineer at the newly formed Metropolitan Board of Works, had a plan: a new sewage system for London, which was swiftly put into action.
A network of pipes would run beneath the city sending waste into two huge sewers either side of the Thames. These sewers would then take the waste Eastwards and away from central London.
The Southern Outfall Works, as the complex was originally called, was officially opened on 4 April 1865, by Edward, Prince of Wales, attended by Prince Alfred, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York and the Lord Mayor of London, and many other persons of rank.
Following an address by Joseph Bazalgette, the Royal party toured the works and reservoirs, and the Prince then turned the wheel which started the engines and, as the Illustrated London News observed, “a sensible vibration was felt throughout the building, showing that the enormous beams, lifting-rods and flywheels were in operation.”
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Crossness Pumping Station is a former sewage pumping station designed by the architect Charles Henry Driver for the Metropolitan Board of Works’s chief engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. It is located at Crossness Sewage Treatment Works, at the eastern end of the Southern Outfall Sewer and the Ridgeway path in the London Borough of Bexley. Constructed between 1859 and 1865 by William Webster, as part of Bazalgette’s redevelopment of the London sewerage system, it features spectacular ornamental cast ironwork, described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as “a masterpiece of engineering – a Victorian cathedral of ironwork”. It was decommissioned in 1956. Subsequently the building has been extensively restored and was opened to the public in 2016.
London’s population grew rapidly in the first half of the 19th century, from roughly 1 million in 1800 to 2.5 million in 1850. This caused numerous problems including, of course, with sewage. Up until the 1860’s London’s sewage system was dumped into the Thames. Plans and solutions were proposed and discussed for decades but nothing could ever be agreed upon in Parliament. Joseph Bazalgette, the chief engineer at the newly formed Metropolitan Board of Works, had a plan: a new sewage system for London, which was swiftly put into action.
A network of pipes would run beneath the city sending waste into two huge sewers either side of the Thames. These sewers would then take the waste Eastwards and away from central London.
The Southern Outfall Works, as the complex was originally called, was officially opened on 4 April 1865, by Edward, Prince of Wales, attended by Prince Alfred, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York and the Lord Mayor of London, and many other persons of rank.
Following an address by Joseph Bazalgette, the Royal party toured the works and reservoirs, and the Prince then turned the wheel which started the engines and, as the Illustrated London News observed, “a sensible vibration was felt throughout the building, showing that the enormous beams, lifting-rods and flywheels were in operation.”