Nicknamed "the Cathedral of Sewage" Abbey Mills Pumping Station is a former sewage pumping station. It was built between 1865 and 1868, housing eight-beam engines. The station’s pumps drew waste water from the drains of north London and sent it down to the filter beds at Beckton. It is now replaced by a modern pumping station nearby.

Abbey Mills Pumping Station can be visited occasionally, for example on Open House weekend.

Magda Ernest

July 12, 2020

Road cycling

Abbey Mills Pumping Station - built in 1865. It’s such a lovely building. Definitely worth visiting if Byzantine architecture is your thing.

Marian

July 25, 2020

Running

The original Abbey Mills Pumping Station, in Mill Meads, East London, is a sewage pumping station, designed by engineer Joseph Bazalgette, Edmund Cooper, and architect Charles Driver. It was built between 1865 and 1868, housing eight beam engines by Rothwell & Co. of Bolton. Two engines on each arm of a cruciform plan, with an elaborate Byzantine style, described as The Cathedral of Sewage. Another of Bazalgette's designs, Crossness Pumping Station, is located south of the River Thames at Crossness, at the end of the Southern Outfall Sewer.

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Elevation 60 m

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Saturday 14 March

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Max wind speed: 5.0 km/h

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Location: London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom

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