Greenwich Pumping Station, known until as Deptford Pumping Station, is a

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewerage, sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged fro ...

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses, are public utility buildings containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are critical in a variety of infrastructure systems, such as water supply, Land reclamation, ...

in the London Borough of Greenwich built in 1865 to the east of Deptford Creek. It is part of the

London sewerage system The London sewer system is part of the water infrastructure serving London, England. The modern system was developed during the late 19th century, and as London has grown the system has been expanded. It is currently owned and operated by Thame ...

devised by Sir

Joseph Bazalgette Sir Joseph William Bazalgette (; 28 March 1819 – 15 March 1891) was an English civil engineering, civil engineer. As Chief Engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works, his major achievement was the creation of the London Main Drainage, t ...

in the mid 19th century. Today operated by

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 ...

, it is located on the western side of Norman Road, approximately south west of

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

town centre, on the eastern bank of Deptford Creek, around south of its

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

with 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 ...

History

After an outbreak of

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

in 1853 and " The Big Stink" of 1858, central London's sewerage system was designed by

to intercept sewage flows and prevent them flowing into the Thames. Deptford pumping station was constructed to raise sewage from the southern interceptor sewers by into the Southern Outfall Sewer, where it would flow onwards to

Crossness Sewage Treatment Works The Crossness Sewage Treatment Works is a sewage treatment plant located at Crossness in the London Borough of Bexley. It was opened in 1865 and is Europe's second largest sewage treatment works, after its counterpart Beckton Sewage Treatment Wor ...

. In the year 1919/20 the Deptford pumps handled and the running costs were £28,818. Deptford was the south London equivalent of Abbey Mills pumping station, which performed a similar function for the Northern Outfall Sewer. The original Deptford pumping station building, now a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, was built in London stock brick in an

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

style, and comprised two engine houses with a linking boiler house. It initially housed four steam-powered

beam engine A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead Beam (structure), beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used b ...

s (later replaced by diesel and electric pumps). When installed, the engines at Deptford were the largest ever built. Two adjacent coal sheds are also Grade II listed. Over 150 years later, in the early 2020s, the Greenwich pumping station site was the location of a shaft used to drive the Greenwich connection tunnel to Chambers Wharf on the Thames Tideway Scheme, currently under construction, and intended to partly supersede Bazalgette's system.

References

{{Thames Water Buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Grade II listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Grade II listed industrial buildings London water infrastructure Sewage pumping stations Thames Water Infrastructure completed in 1865 Former pumping stations