Cricklewood Pumping Station was built in 1905 to supply water to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

's north west suburbs. It is situated at the eastern extremity of Gladstone Park,

Cricklewood Cricklewood is a town in North London, England, in the London Boroughs of Camden, Barnet, and Brent. The Crown pub, now the Clayton Crown Hotel, is a local landmark and lies north-west of Charing Cross. Cricklewood was a small rural hamlet ...

and is a locally listed building.

History

By 1900, about half of the sixty acre estate that had belonged to local industrialist George Furness had been built on by housing developers. It was around this time that the

New River Company The New River Company, formally The Governor and Company of the New River brought from Chadwell and Amwell to London, was a privately-owned water supply company in London, England, originally formed around 1609 and incorporated in 1619 by roy ...

bought some of the land for water works. The pumping station was responsible for providing water from the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

to London's expanding suburbs, some as far away as

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

and

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

, where it was stored in reservoirs including those in

Golders Green Golders Green is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet in north London, northwest of Charing Cross. It began as a medieval small suburban linear settlement near a farm and public grazing area green, and dates to the early 19th century. It ...

and

Muswell Hill Muswell Hill is a suburban district of the London Borough of Haringey, north London. The hill, which reaches over above sea level, is situated north of Charing Cross. Neighbouring areas include Highgate, London, Highgate, Hampstead Garden ...

. In the

Willesden Willesden () is an area of north-west London, situated 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933; it has formed ...

area, the

West Middlesex Waterworks Company The West Middlesex Waterworks Company (also known as The Company of Proprietors of the West Middlesex Water Works Company) was a utility company supplying water to parts of West London in England. The company was established in 1806 wi ...

supplied water to homes until 1903 when the

Metropolitan Water Board The Metropolitan Water Board was a municipal body formed in 1903 to manage the water supply in London, UK. The members of the board were nominated by the local authorities within its area of supply. In 1904 it took over the water supply functio ...

took over. The Metropolitan Water Board had reservoirs at Harlesden Road and one at St. Michael's Road, Cricklewood, the same road as the pumping station. Starting in 1908, water arrived at Cricklewood from the new water works at Kempton Park. Two triple-expansion

steam engines A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

would pump of water per day through a diameter main to Cricklewood. From there, three Lilleshall steam engines would pump the water further to the reservoir at

Fortis Green Fortis Green is a ward in the extreme northwestern corner of the Borough of Haringey, north London. It is also the name of the road that runs between Muswell Hill and East Finchley which forms part of the A504. The ward lies between Colney H ...

near Muswell Hill. Cricklewood Pumping Station was coal-fired until the 1950s and the distinctive chimney was used to discharge smoke. By the late 1950s, the station had converted to electric power, rendering the chimney obsolete. In 1987, the station attained notoriety when a pipe burst leaving the surrounding streets so badly flooded that residents had to be evacuated.

Current Use

In 1978, Cricklewood Pumping Station became the Cricklewood works of the

Thames Water Authority The Thames Water Authority was a UK regional water authority created by the Water Act 1973 to consolidate water management in the river Thames catchment area. It was dissolved in 1989 due to the privatisation of the water industry. Predeces ...

, now

Thames Water Thames Water Utilities Limited, trading as Thames Water, is a British private utility company responsible for the water supply and waste water Wastewater (or waste water) is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking w ...

, and remains in use today. The defunct chimney has found a new lease of life as a mobile phone mast.

Popular culture

The interior of Cricklewood Pumping Station was used as a double for the ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...

''s engine rooms in the

Kenneth More Kenneth Gilbert More (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English actor. Initially achieving fame in the comedy ''Genevieve (film), Genevieve'' (1953), he appeared in many roles as a carefree, happy-go-lucky gent. Films from this period ...

film '' A Night to Remember''. The station was the eponymous setting of Chapter 8 of book four of the Belinda Blinked series and subsequently Season 4 Episode 8 of the podcast, ''

My Dad Wrote a Porno ''My Dad Wrote a Porno'' is a British comedy podcast hosted by Jamie Morton, James Cooper, and Alice Levine. Published from 4 October 2015 to 12 December 2022, each episode of the podcast features Morton reading a new chapter of ''Belinda Blinked ...

''.

References

External links

Thames Water
{{Thames Water Water supply pumping stations Infrastructure completed in 1905 Cricklewood 20th-century architecture in the United Kingdom 1905 establishments in England London water infrastructure