Outing to Crossness Pumping Station March 28th

For our second outing of the year 29 members and guests took the coach to visit the 'Cathedral of Sewage', the Victorian pumping station at Crossness on the Thames at Abbey Wood.

We started our visit with a surprise ride on the RANG railway from the site entrance to the Pumping Station. RANG, the Royal Arsenal Narrow Guage railway had over seven miles of track on the large site adjacent to the sewage pumping station.

We were met by our guide Rob Harris who gave us an introduction to the site before making our way to the cafe for a most excellent buffet lunch of sanwiches, baguettes, rolls and wraps prepared by their local caterers.

After lunch we had an introductory video about the 'Great Stink' and the circumstances leading up to the creation of Crossness Pumping Station. We then had a demonstration of how the sewage made its way along the sewers designed by engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Two sewers were constructed on both banks of the Thames starting near Charing Cross (driving along the Embankment is driving along the sewer) and the sewage flowed by gravity ( a 2 degree slope) down to Crossness on the South side and Becton on the North side. Large tanks were constructed to store the sewage before it was pumped out to sea on the outgoing tide!

We then went outside to the sewage storage tanks, workshops and ancilliary builings before proceeding inside to the magnificently restored pumping house.

Only one of the pumping engines has been restored to working order and it is run on several Open Days during the year. Those of us who were able, then climbed the stairs to the top floor to view all four of the huge beam engines. The open floor mesh was quite a challenge for some!

The volunteers of the Crossness Trust have a never ending task to restore and maintain this magnificent example of Victorian Engineering and Architecture but thanks to them we had an excellent and most informative history afternoon. A visit to Crossness should be on everybody's To Do list!