Cricklewood Pumping Station was built in 1905 to supply water to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

's north west suburbs. It is situated at the eastern extremity of Gladstone Park,

Cricklewood Cricklewood is an area of London, England, which spans the boundaries of three London boroughs: Barnet to the east, Brent to the west and Camden to the south-east. The Crown pub, now the Clayton Crown Hotel, is a local landmark and lies north- ...

and is a locally listed building.

History

By 1900, about half of the sixty acre estate that had belonged to local industrialist

George Furness George Furness (31 October 1820 – 9 January 1900) was an English Victorian construction engineer and benefactor. He described himself as a "contractor of public works". He worked all around the world, on railways, drainage, and brickwo ...

had been built on by housing developers. It was around this time that the

New River Company The New River Company, formally The Governor and Company of the New River brought from Chadwell and Amwell to London, was a privately-owned water supply company in London, England, originally formed around 1609 and incorporated in 1619 by roy ...

bought some of the land for water works. The pumping station was responsible for providing water from 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 ...

to London's expanding suburbs, some as far away as

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

and

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

, where it was stored in reservoirs including those in

Golders Green Golders Green is an area in the London Borough of Barnet in England. A smaller suburban linear settlement, near a farm and public grazing area green of medieval origins, dates to the early 19th century. Its bulk forms a late 19th century and ea ...

and

Muswell Hill Muswell Hill is a suburban district of the London Borough of Haringey, north London. The hill, which reaches over above sea level, is situated north of Charing Cross. Neighbouring areas include Highgate, Hampstead Garden Suburb, East Finchl ...

. In the

Willesden Willesden () is an area of northwest London, situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933, and has formed ...

area, the

West Middlesex Waterworks Company The West Middlesex Waterworks Company was a utility company supplying water to parts of west London in England. The company was established in 1806 with works at Hammersmith and became part of the publicly owned Metropolitan Water Board in 1904 ...

supplied water to homes until 1903 when the

Metropolitan Water Board The Metropolitan Water Board was a municipal body formed in 1903 to manage the water supply in London, UK. The members of the board were nominated by the local authorities within its area of supply. In 1904 it took over the water supply functi ...

took over. The Metropolitan Water Board had reservoirs at Harlesden Road and one at St. Michael's Road, Cricklewood, the same road as the pumping station. Starting in 1908, water arrived at Cricklewood from the new water works at Kempton Park. Two triple-expansion

steam engines A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

would pump of water per day through a diameter main to Cricklewood. From there, three Lilleshall steam engines would pump the water further to the reservoir at

Fortis Green Fortis Green is a ward in the extreme northwestern corner of the Borough of Haringey, north London. It is also the name of the road that runs between Muswell Hill and East Finchley which forms part of the A504. The ward lies between Colney H ...

near Muswell Hill. Cricklewood Pumping Station was coal-fired until the 1950s and the distinctive chimney was used to discharge smoke. By the late 1950s, the station had converted to electric power, rendering the chimney obsolete. In 1987, the station attained notoriety when a pipe burst leaving the surrounding streets so badly flooded that residents had to be evacuated.

Current Use

In 1978, Cricklewood Pumping Station became the Cricklewood works of the

Thames Water Authority The Thames Water Authority was one of ten regional water authorities created in the UK on 1 April 1974 under the provisions of the Water Act 1973 to bring together all the water management functions of the region in one public body. Predece ...

, now

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 Wiltshir ...

, and remains in use today. The defunct chimney has found a new lease of life as a mobile phone mast.

Popular culture

The interior of Cricklewood Pumping Station was used as a double for the ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

''s engine rooms in the

Kenneth More Kenneth Gilbert More, Order of the British Empire#Current classes, CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English film and stage actor. Initially achieving fame in the comedy ''Genevieve (film), Genevieve'' (1953), he appeared in many ...

film '' A Night to Remember''. The station was the eponymous setting of Chapter 8 of book four of the Belinda Blinked series and subsequently Season 4 Episode 8 of the podcast, '' My Dad Wrote a Porno''.

References

External links

Thames Water
{{Thames Water Water supply pumping stations Infrastructure completed in 1905 Cricklewood 20th-century architecture in the United Kingdom 1905 establishments in England London water infrastructure