Architecture

Buildings where the building is the reason to go: the inside-out, the Art Deco, the concrete, and the ones that make no sense at all until somebody explains them.

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Abbey Mills Pumping Station

The cathedral of sewage: Bazalgette's pumping station in cruciform plan with Byzantine ironwork.

IndustrialVictorian & EdwardianFree

Photo by Simon from London, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Also in Science & Engineering.

Joseph Bazalgette built it in 1868 as part of the sewer system that ended cholera in London, and there was no engineering reason for it to look like this. The plan is a Greek cross, the ironwork is Byzantine and Moorish, the columns are painted and gilded, and two Venetian-Gothic chimneys stood over it until they were taken down in the war in case they guided bombers to the Thames. Victorian public engineering was routinely given this treatment - the works were a civic achievement and were meant to be seen as one. It is the best surviving argument that infrastructure used to be architecture, and it opens only on the water company's own days.

Where
Abbey Lane, Stratford, E15 2RN
Nearest station
West Ham · 6 min walk

Not open except on Open House days; the Greenway path passes it at any hour.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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