Abbey Mills Pumping Station is a

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from reside ...

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure system ...

in Mill Meads,

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the ...

, operated by

Thames Water Thames Water Utilities Ltd, known as Thames Water, is a large private utility company responsible for the public water supply and waste water treatment in most of Greater London, Luton, the Thames Valley, Surrey, Gloucestershire, north W ...

. The pumping station lifts sewage from the

London sewerage system The London sewer system is part of the water infrastructure serving London, England. The modern system was developed during the late 19th century, and as London has grown the system has been expanded. It is currently owned and operated by Thames ...

into the

Northern Outfall Sewer The Northern Outfall Sewer (NOS) is a major gravity sewer which runs from Wick Lane in Hackney to Beckton sewage treatment works in east London; most of it was designed by Joseph Bazalgette after an outbreak of cholera in 1853 and the "Great ...

and the

Lee Tunnel The Lee Tunnel, also known as the Stratford to East Ham deep tunnel, is a paradigm overflow sewer in East London for storage and conveyance of foul sewage mixed with rainwater. It was built as part of the Thames Tideway Scheme and runs from ...

, which both run to

Beckton Sewage Treatment Works Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, formerly known as Barking Sewage Works, is a large sewage treatment plant in Beckton in the east London Borough of Newham, operated by Thames Water. Since construction first began in 1864, the plant has been exten ...

. The original pumping station, designed by engineer Joseph Bazalgette, Edmund Cooper, and architect

Charles Driver Charles Henry Driver FRIBA (23 March 1832 – 27 October 1900) was a significant British architect of the Victorian era, with a reputation for pioneering use of ornamental iron work for which he was seen as a leading authority. Biography Driver ...

, was built between 1865 and 1868, housing eight

beam engine A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newc ...

s by Rothwell & Co. of Bolton. Two engines on each arm of a cruciform plan, with an elaborate

Byzantine style Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire. The Byzantine era is usually dated from 330 AD, when Constantine the Great moved the Roman capital to Byzantium, which became Constantinople, until the ...

, described as ''The Cathedral of Sewage''. Another of Bazalgette's designs,

Crossness Pumping Station The Crossness Pumping Station is a former sewage pumping station designed by the Metropolitan Board of Works's chief engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and architect Charles Henry Driver. It is located at Crossness Sewage Treatment Works, at the ...

, is located south of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

Crossness Crossness is a location in the London Borough of Bexley, close to the southern bank of the River Thames, to the east of Thamesmead, west of Belvedere and north-west of Erith. The place takes its name from Cross Ness, a specific promontory on the ...

, at the end of the Southern Outfall Sewer. A modern sewage pumping station (Station F) was completed in 1997 about south of the original station.

History

The pumping station was built at the site of an earlier

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...

owned by the former Stratford Langthorne Abbey, from which it gained the name "Abbey Mills". It was first recorded as ''Wiggemulne'' in 1312, i.e., "the mill of a man called Wicga", an

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

personal name, and subsequently became associated with the abbey. The abbey lay between the Channelsea River and Marsh Lane (Manor Road). It was dissolved in 1538. By 1840, the North Woolwich railway ran through the site, and it began to be used to establish factories, and ultimately the sewage pumping stations.

Purpose

Abbey Mills Pumping Station was constructed to lift sewage between the two Low Level Sewers and the

, which was built in the 1860s to carry the increasing amount of sewage produced in London away from the centre of the city to the sewage treatment plant at Beckton. Details of the pumps in the year 1912/13 were as follows: The pumping capability was increased with the addition of gas engine driven pumps. Details of the operation of the pumps in the year 1919/20 were as follows: Two

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or s ...

styled chimneys – unused since steam power had been replaced by electric motors in 1933 – were demolished in 1941, as it was feared that a strike from German bombs might topple them onto the pumping station. The building still houses electric pumps – to be used to assist the new facility next door when required. The main building is

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

and there are many Grade II-listed ancillary buildings, including the stumps of the demolished chimneys.

Modern pumping station

The modern pumping station (Station F) was designed by architects

Allies and Morrison Allies and Morrison LLP is an architecture and urban planning practice based in London and Cambridge. Founded in 1984, the practice is now one of Britain's largest architectural firms. The practice's work ranges from architecture and interio ...

. The original building (Station A) has electrical pumps and these are used to assist the modern pumping station during high flows if required. It is one of the three principal London pumping stations dealing with foul water. Both pumping stations are able to discharge flows directly into the Lee Tunnel.

Lee Tunnel

The Lee Tunnel is a sewage tunnel that runs from Abbey Mills to

and is designed to handle the 16 million tons of overflow sewage that was previously discharged into the

River Lea The River Lea ( ) is in South East England. It originates in Bedfordshire, in the Chiltern Hills, and flows southeast through Hertfordshire, along the Essex border and into Greater London, to meet the River Thames at Bow Creek. It is one of ...

each year at Abbey Mills, as well as the additional wastewater brought to Abbey Mills by the Thames Tideway tunnel. Construction of the Lee Tunnel began in 2012 and it was opened for service in early 2016.

Thames Tideway Scheme

Abbey Mills is the endpoint of the main Thames Tideway tunnel, where sewage will be transferred into the Lee Tunnel and onwards to Beckton for treatment. Both the Lee Tunnel and the main Thames Tideway tunnel also serve as storage reservoirs to store wastewater during heavy rainfall.

Gallery

File:Abbeymillsdoor.JPG, Door at Abbey Mills Pumping Station File:Inside Abbey Mills Pumping Station.jpg, Interior File:The lantern in A Station.jpg, Lantern in Station A File:C Station Pump House.jpg, Station C

References

External links

Interior and exterior photos of the pumping station
* * * * * * * * {{Thames Water Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Newham Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Newham Grade II* listed industrial buildings Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Newham Grade II listed industrial buildings History of the London Borough of Newham London water infrastructure Structures on the Heritage at Risk register in London Sewage pumping stations Thames Water Infrastructure completed in 1868 Former pumping stations Charles Henry Driver buildings Mill Meads 1868 in London