Crossness Historic Pumping Station [38 photos] in TQ48488109

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Crossness Historic Pumping Station

The Crossness Sewage Pumping Station was built in 1864/5 to deal with the vast quantities of effluent that was flowing from London through the new sewage system created by Sir Joseph Bazalgette. This system of brick-built sewers had been created to alleviate the dreadful situation that had formerly led to the River Thames through the city effectively being an open sewer. Things had come to a head in 1858 with a period of hot weather resulting in "The Great Stink". When parliament itself was affected by this miasma they decided to act and so the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) with Bazalgette as its Chief Engineer built the intricate network of interconnecting sewers that were to take the sewage well to the east of the city before disgorging it into the Thames estuary at a point where it would not flow back into London.
The outflow on the southern side of the river was decided to be on the Erith Marshes near to Cross Ness, while the northern outflow was at Barking. When the tide was at the ebb (flowing outwards) the effluent could be discharged straight into the river; however at other states of the tide it could not. As a result the sewage arriving at these other times needed to be held in a reservoir for release into the river once it was again at the ebb. The reservoir was at a higher level than the river (to allow discharge by gravity) so it needed to be pumped into this holding reservoir. A huge covered reservoir capable of holding 25 million gallons was built on the marshes and the pumping station was commissioned to lift the waste into this storage. Four huge rotative beam engines (now the largest in existence in the World) were installed in the newly created Engine Room here at Crossness. The steam to operate them was generated in the adjacent Boiler House which contained 12 Cornish boilers. Sadly these boilers no longer exist, but all four beam engines do - in various states of repair - including "Prince Consort" which has been fully restored and can sometimes be seen "in steam" and working - see visitor information below.
The four engines were built by James Watt and Co. and were all named after members of the Royal Family:
"Victoria" is currently under renovation.
"Prince Consort" as mentioned above is fully operational.
"Albert Edward" (later to be Edward VII) and "Alexandra" (his wife) are yet to be attended to, but are still there in situ.
These four engines are housed in the magnificent Engine House which has such elaborate ironwork that it acquired the nickname "The cathedral of the marshes". It is thought that the architect working in collaboration with Bazalgette was Charles Driver who was certainly the architect of Abbey Mills Pumping Station north of the river which shares many of its characteristics with Crossness, in particular its elaborate ironwork.
The former Boiler House is now an exhibition space and contains a café.
Originally there was an elaborate campanile-like chimney which stood 208' (63m) and was situated to the southeast of the Boiler House. Unfortunately the chimney was demolished in 1958.
In the last decade of the C19th it was realised that the beam engines needed their pumps upgrading but as the pumping of sewage was still required they could not be shut down for this refurbishment without other engines being available to take the load. So another engine house was built adjoining this original one to the north. This was the Triple Expansion Engine House (TEEH) which housed two triple expansion engines and reciprocating pumps. This large building still exists, but its engines are long gone and at present there is no public access to it. In 1947 the triple expansion engines were removed from the TEEH and were replaced by diesel engines driving centrifugal pumps (remnants remain). By this time the beam engines were hardly used; Prince Consort being the last to be used in 1953 to help deal with flood waters. The engines began their steady decline until rescued in the 1980s.
Following the EH listing of the building (1980) the Crossness Preservation group was formed. A bunch of keen and dedicated individuals began making moves to restore the 1865 buildings and engines. In 1987 the Crossness Engines Trust was formed. Sixteen years later (2003) "Prince Consort" was back in steam and started by HRH The Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) fifty years after its last use.
The entire site is well worth a visit.

The main buildings are listed Grade I by English Heritage: Link

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