Pumping station celebrates 150th anniversary

A pumping station will today celebrate 150 years since its completion by the great civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette.

Many of the emptied sinks, flushed lavatories and drained washing machines across London still flow down to the ornate Grade II-listed Victorian brick engine rooms a short distance from the Olympic Park.

The Thames Water site at Abbey Mills in Stratford opened for public tours this week, but these are now booked up due to over demand. A time capsule will be buried in the gardens, containing a high-vis jacket, a “fatberg” documentary on a USB stick and a bottle of local tap water.

The oldest of the pumping buildings at Abbey Mills has operated since 1868 and the site is still classed as critical infrastructure — surrounded by 10ft-high fence topped with razor wire.

Architect Sir Charles Driver packed different styles into the cathedral-like pumping station, including Russian Orthodox, Gothic, Celtic and Byzantine. It has been renovated for the 150th anniversary and the ironwork painted to its original spec.

Ahead of today’s ceremony, the engineer’s great-great-grandson, Sir Peter Bazalgette, executive chairman of ITV, said: “Abbey Mills was one of the two magnificent, pumping ‘cathedrals’ that Joseph Bazalgette commissioned at the heart of his sewage system for London. It’s wonderful it’s being preserved.”