(This section of the site is derived from 'A Popular History of Crossness' by Ian G Hampson.)
In the early nineteenth century, London's water supply and the Thames
were heavily polluted with sewage. This resulted in several cholera outbreaks
during which up to 20,000 people died annually. In 1858, Parliament instructed
the newly formed Metropolitan Board of Works to remedy this situation.
Joseph
Bazalgette, the then Engineer of the MBW, was charged with finding a solution
to these problems. He built 85 miles of new sewers which intercepted the
many smaller sewers that ran into the Thames, and took the effluent to
the East of London where it was discharged into the Thames and flowed
out to sea. This required a number of pumping stations. The shell of the
pumping station at Abbey Mills, North of the river, still exists but none
of the original pumping plant remains. South of the river there was a
pumping station at Deptford, which has essentially disappeared, but the
station at Crossness remains relatively untouched except for the ravages
of time.
In the early nineteenth century, London's water supply and the Thames
were heavily polluted with sewage. This resulted in several cholera outbreaks
during which up to 20,000 people died annually. In 1858, Parliament instructed
the newly formed Metropolitan Board of Works to remedy this situation.
Joseph
Bazalgette, the then Engineer of the MBW, was charged with finding a solution
to these problems. He built 85 miles of new sewers which intercepted the
many smaller sewers that ran into the Thames, and took the effluent to
the East of London where it was discharged into the Thames and flowed
out to sea. This required a number of pumping stations. The shell of the
pumping station at Abbey Mills, North of the river, still exists but none
of the original pumping plant remains. South of the river there was a
pumping station at Deptford, which has essentially disappeared, but the
station at Crossness remains relatively untouched except for the ravages
of time.