Crossness Pumping Station

The Crossness Pumping Station, like the Natural History Museum, exemplifies the Victorian concept of building a cathedral for science, in the unlikely form of a sewage pumping station. The station, completed April 4, 1865, is no longer in use; however, the reservoirs under the station are still used for rain water. The architecture is aesthetically beautiful and it struck me how even a modest sewage pumping station looked important and beautiful, much different from the ugly and utilitarian buildings of the DWP. This amazing building not only marks an architectural achievement but an achievement for the Victorians by using science to overcome diseases of filth, particularly cholera. The pumping station helped remove pollution from the London water supply emphasizing public health as an important component of a prosperous and successful society.

The Crossness Pumping Station was only a small component of a larger sewage plan. I was surprised that the Victorians were able to put into place one of the largest civil service projects in the world and how quickly they were able to complete their project. The conditions before the sewage system sound terrible: disease, night-soil building up in people’s basements and front yards and the River Thames so polluted that sticking a piece of white paper in the water edgewise would render the bottom of the card impossible to see. The other important benefit of the cleaning the Thames was reducing cholera outbreaks. Cholera had killed thousands of people each time an epidemic broke out and unlike other filth diseases, it discriminated against no one.

In addition to scale, I was amazed with Bazalgette’s foresight in pipe construction. That the pipes that Bazalgette constructed 150 years ago are still in use today proves his skill because he was able to take into account factors which were present in his time, but by doubling the width of the pipes from his original estimate he acknowledged that there were variables that he could not comprehend. I was shocked to learn how few people know of Bazalgette and he has a statue in one of the London Underground stations, where as Brunel has monuments in more prominent places.

Motivation for building the sewage system reminded me of contemporary policymaking decisions. During the Great Stink of 1858, Parliament had to be shut down because the stench was so horrid and people were worried about miasma causing disease. In an example from class, we saw a cartoon showing a look under a microscope of what one would see if he was to look under a microscope at water from the Thames. Fears of miasmas causing illness promoted Parliament to consider physically removing the building from its position along the Thames to further inland from the smell to keep the MPS safe from disease. Until the stench affected those in positions of political power, little had been done in terms of public health. However, once Parliament was overwhelmed with the stench, they were very active in searching for solutions.