Crossness Pumping Station

It doesn't seem a likely adventure, but today we were off to Abbey Wood to tour a closed-down sewer treatment plant. No, really. I've read and seen photos of the Crossness Pumping Station for years. The station is open only about 3 days per month and several times a year it is open for what is known as a "Steaming Day" when the Victorian engine is in operation. I have tried for about three years now to book in on Steaming Day and on this trip the stars aligned. "What's the attraction?" I hear you saying. Well, Crossness is an example of industrial design at its finest. Okay, I don't really understand all the ins and outs of the way in which the steam engine allowed the sewage to be pumped uphill to the area where the sewage was stored but I do know that this plant was a life-saver for London - literally.

Back in the 1800s, there was no sewage system. There were Cesspits all over London where people would dump their sewage. Once the pits were filled, "nightmen" would come at night to dig out the contents and cart them away. They would sell the solid waste to farmers to use as fertilizer and dump the liquid waste into the Thames. That all changed during the industrial revolution when more and more people were moving to London and the Cesspits often overflowed into the Thames. In 1830 a cholera epidemic hit the city, killing 6500 people, mostly the poor. A second epidemic hit in 1848 killing over 14,000, a third in 1854 killed over 10,000. Then in 1858 London experienced "The Great Stink." The Thames is a tidal river, so when temperatures soared into the 90s the excess sewage was exposed twice a day as the water flowed out, allowing bacteria to thrive. The stench was such that Parliament was barely able to breathe, since the houses of Parliament are on the river. Though they never really cared about the suffering of the poor who were usually the victims of cholera, when they were affected they knew something had to be done.

Enter engineer Sir Joseph Bazelgette. He redesigned and redeveloped the London sewage system to alleviate the stink. The Crossness Pumping Station enabled the sewage to be pumped out to sea. (It wasn't until 1882 that a Royal Commission recommended that the solid matter in the sewage should be separated out, and that only the liquid portion remaining should be allowed, as a temporary measure, to pass into the river.)

What makes Crossness interesting to me is its design. Think of it: this is an industrial site dealing with the pumping of sewage, but it was designed to be beautiful. And that's why I wanted to see it. It's not much from the outside.

Walking into the pumping room, the first thing you see is the state of the engines as they were before restoration work on them began. (There were four engines.)

But when you turn the corner, there are the painted wrought iron gates that lead to the restored engine.

Beyond that is the one pump that has been restored and was operational that day.

You can climb up the stairs to get more of a bird's eye view of both the old and restored parts of the station.

When I got back downstairs I asked one of the volunteers about the symbolism of the decoration. He explained that it's all about the regularity of the bowels. (!) At the top of the pillars are fig leaves and figs. Figs are known for keeping the bowels regular. Just below them are the leaves and seeds of the senna plant, which are a natural laxative.

The white flowers on the gates are bindweed, which were supposed to help with loose stools.

All of the restoration work on the engines is done by the Crossness Engines Trust. The people who work at the Pumping Station, when it is open, are all volunteers.

Back in the lobby, there were displays of toilets and accessories

and there's an optional tour, which we took, to the archives. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but it's basically a big collection of toilets, bedpans, chamber pots and the like.

Okay, admittedly that's a bit weird, but I was really there for the engine. There is even, believe it or not, a gift shop. My favorite item was this one:

We took the RANG (Royal Arsenal Narrow Gauge) railway back to the entrance

and got an Uber to the train station for the trip home. In the station we found a group of elves who, I think, were on a pub crawl. (Don't tell Santa.)