Monuments to sewage
Abbey Mills pumping stations and the Northern Outfall Sewer
The Northern Outfall Sewer carries North London's waste all the way to a sewage works on the Thames at Barking Creek. The embankment covering the sewer is now the Greenway: a footpath and cycle route passing the old and new Abbey Mills pumping stations and carrying on at roof top height through West Ham to Beckton.
Bazalgette's solution to the great stink
The work of a great Victorian engineer, Bazalgette is still helping to keep London clean today. He built many miles of sewers together with pumping stations and treatment works.
It took the 'big stink' during the hot summer of 1858 to persuade members of parliament to permit Bazalgette to put his ambitious plans into action.
A network of sewers
Sewers from the high ground in the north of London join a system running from Chiswick in the west via the Victoria Embankment, to Old Ford in the east. These feed into the Northern Outfall Sewer. The sewage is lifted by pumps at Abbey Mills and then flow on to the treatment works at Beckton.
The old Abbey Mills pumping station was built in the Byzantine style and originally contained eight Cornish beam engines. Now a modern pumping station stands alongside.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 18 January 2007
