Abbey Mills Pumping Station

{{Infobox building

| name = Abbey Mills Pumping Station

| native_name =

| native_name_lang =

| logo =

| logo_size =

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| image = Abbey Mills Pumping Station main building (1) - 2022-04-03.jpg

| image_size =

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| image_caption = The main building in 2022

| map_type = United Kingdom London Newham

| map_alt =

| map_caption = Location in London Borough of Newham

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| alternate_names =

| status = in use

| building_type = pumping station

| architectural_style = Italian Gothic

| classification =

| location =

| address = Abbey Lane, Mill Meads

| location_city = London

| location_country = England

| coordinates = {{coord|51.5307|-0.0008|display=inline,title}}

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| namesake =

| groundbreaking_date =

| start_date = 1865

| completion_date = 1868

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| architect = Charles Driver

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| developer =

| engineer = Joseph Bazalgette

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| embedded = {{infobox designation list

| embed=yes

| designation1 = Grade II*

| designation1_date = 6 November 1974

| designation1_number = 1190476

}}

| references =

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}}

Abbey Mills Pumping Station is a sewage pumping station in Mill Meads, East London, operated by Thames Water. The pumping station lifts sewage on the London Main Drainage sewerage system into the Northern Outfall Sewer and the Lee Tunnel, which both run to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works.

The pumping station was designed by the architect Charles Driver{{Cite journal |last=Dobraszczyk |first=Paul |date=2003 |title=Historicizing Iron: Charles Driver and the Abbey Mills Pumping Station (1865–68) |journal=Architectural History |issue=49 |pages=223–56}} for the Metropolitan Board of Works Chief Engineer Joseph Bazalgette and was built between 1865 and 1868, housing eight beam engines by Rothwell & Co. of Bolton, two on each arm of a cruciform plan.{{Cite journal |last=Douet |first=James |date=2021-07-03 |title=The Steam Pumping Stations of the London Main Drainage, 1858–75 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03090728.2021.1973226 |journal=Industrial Archaeology Review |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=135–146 |doi=10.1080/03090728.2021.1973226 |issn=0309-0728|url-access=subscription }} The architecture is an eclectic style related to Driver's railway station designs. Another of his designs, Crossness Pumping Station, is located south of the River Thames at Crossness, at the end of the Southern Outfall Sewer.{{Cite book |last=Douet |first=James |title=The Architecture of Steam, Waterworks and the Victorian Sanitary Crisis |publisher=Historic England in association with Liverpool University Press |year=2023 |isbn=9781802077537}}

A modern sewage pumping station (Station F) was completed in 1997{{cite web|url=http://www.alliesandmorrison.com/project/abbey-mills-pumping-station/|title=ABBEY MILLS PUMPING STATION - Allies and Morrison|work=alliesandmorrison.com|access-date=9 October 2015|archive-date=18 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150918200342/http://www.alliesandmorrison.com/project/abbey-mills-pumping-station/|url-status=dead}} about {{convert|200|m|ft}} 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 the name "Abbey Mills".{{cite web|url=https://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/abbey-mills/|work=hidden-london.com|title=Abbey Mills, Newham}} 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.{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of London Place-Names|first=A. D.|last=Mills|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=9780199566785|page=1}} 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.[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=42760 West Ham: Stratford Abbey, A History of the County of Essex]: Volume 6 (1973), pp. 112–14. Retrieved 20 February 2007

=Purpose=

Abbey Mills Pumping Station was constructed to lift sewage 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 to the sewage treatment plant at Beckton.

Details of the pumps in the year 1912/13 were as follows:{{Cite book|last=London County Council|title=London Statistics 1912-13 vol. XXIV|publisher=London County Council|year=1915|location=London|pages=203}}

class="wikitable"

|+Abbey Mills pumps (1912/13)

!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:{{Cite book|last=London County Council|title=London Statistics 1920-21 vol. XXVII|publisher=London County Council|year=1922|location=London|pages=99}}

class="wikitable"

|+Abbey Mills pumps (1919/20)

!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

File:Abbey Mills Pumping Station F - 2023-08-20.jpg

The modern pumping station (Station F) was designed by architects Allies and Morrison. 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 Beckton Sewage Treatment Works and is designed to handle the 16 million tons of overflow sewage that was previously discharged into the River Lea 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.{{cite web|title='Busy Lizzie' arrives in London to dig Lee Tunnel|url=http://www.thameswater.co.uk/media/press-releases/14149.htm|website=Thames Water|access-date=27 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326234122/http://www.thameswater.co.uk/media/press-releases/14149.htm|archive-date=26 March 2016 |url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=Boris Johnson opens new 'super sewer' Lee Tunnel|author1=Amy Ashenden|author2=Luke Garrett|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-opens-new-super-sewer-lee-tunnel-a3167691.html|access-date=27 March 2016|work=London Evening Standard|date=28 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160128204203/http://www.standard.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-opens-new-super-sewer-lee-tunnel-a3167691.html|archive-date=28 January 2016|url-status=live}}

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

[http://www.annandave.org/Abby%20Mills.htm Interior and exterior photos of the pumping station] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200223211342/http://www.annandave.org/Abby%20Mills.htm |date=23 February 2020 }}
{{NHLE |num=1190476 |desc=Grade II* main building}}
{{NHLE |num=1357995 |desc=Grade II base of demolished chimneys}}
{{NHLE |num=1357994 |desc=Grade II ancillary pump house}}
{{NHLE |num=1080980 |desc=Grade II stores}}
{{NHLE |num=1080981 |desc=Grade II superintendent's house (offices)}}
{{NHLE |num=1080982 |desc=Grade II gate lodge}}
{{NHLE |num=1357996 |desc=Grade II gate and gate piers}}
{{EHbarName|Abbey+Mills+Pumping}}

Category:Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Newham

Category:Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Newham

Category:Grade II* listed industrial buildings

Category:Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Newham

Category:Grade II listed industrial buildings

Category:History of the London Borough of Newham

Category:London water infrastructure

Category:Structures on the Heritage at Risk register in London

Category:Sewage pumping stations

Category:Thames Water

Category:Infrastructure completed in 1868

Category:Former pumping stations

Category:Charles Henry Driver buildings

Category:Mill Meads

Category:1868 in London