Abbey Mills Pumping Station
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.
A modern sewage pumping station was completed in 1997 about south of the original station.
History
The pumping station was built at the site of an earlier watermill owned by the former Stratford Langthorne Abbey, from which it gained its name. It was first recorded as Wiggemulne in 1312, i.e., "the mill of a man called Wicga", an Old English personal name, and subsequently became associated with the abbey. The Abbey lay between the Channelsea River and Marsh Lane. 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
The pumps raised the sewage in the London sewerage system between the two Low Level Sewers and the Northern Outfall Sewer, which was built in the 1860s to carry the increasing amount of sewage produced in London away from the centre of the city.Details of the pumps in the year 1912/13 were as follows:
| Pump | Sewage pumped, million gallons | Average lift, ft | Working costs |
| Beam engines | 34,100 | 36.69 | £19,801 |
| Worthington engines | 6,215 | 40.56 | £6,234 |
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:
| Pump | Sewage pumped, million gallons | Average lift, ft | Working costs |
| Beam engines | 35,604.8 | 35.48 | £46,767 |
| Worthington engines | 5,921.5 | 38.34 | £16,117 |
| Gas engines | 3,209.4 | 39.66 | £13,284 |
Two Moorish styled chimneys – unused since steam power had been replaced by electric motors in 1933 – were demolished in 1941, as it was feared that a strike from German bombs might topple them onto the pumping station.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 and there are many grade II-listed ancillary buildings, including the stumps of the demolished chimneys.
Modern pumping station
The modern pumping station was designed by architects Allies and Morrison. The original building 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.
One of the world's largest installation of drum screens to treat sewage was constructed as part of the Thames Tideway Scheme. The site is managed and operated by Thames Water.