Early C20 engine house, boiler house and coal store at Trowse Sewage Pumping Station

Early 20th Century Engine House, Boiler House and Coal Store at Trowse Sewage Pumping Station

A former steam engine house, boiler house and coal store at Trowse Sewage Pumping Station, built in 1909 by Norwich Corporation, with later alterations, now disused. It stands immediately to the south-west of the original engine house (listed Grade II) which was built around 1869.

The building is constructed of red brick with terracotta dressings, a brick ridge stack and tile roofs. Its composition is rectangular in plan, aligned north-east to south-west, with a central engine house flanked by a boiler house to the left and a coal store to the right.

The exterior is executed in Free Renaissance style and forms a single storey with three matching gables to the front, the taller central one set forward. Beneath the upper lunette windows are drip courses with moulded terracotta surrounds, fluted keystones and ogee-shaped aprons, while a chequerboard terracotta pattern appears at the apex of each gable. Rising from the apex of the central gable is a gabled clock set between fluted pilasters, with a terracotta datestone inscribed with the year 1909. The outer gables have terracotta finials, and the engine and boiler houses have glazed ridge lanterns. A raised section of roof behind the clock carries a moulded chimney stack.

The central block features a central doorway with fluted terracotta pilaster jambs supporting a bracketed, coffered, round-arched timber canopy with a dentilled cornice, above double panelled doors with a radial fanlight. It is flanked on each side by two-light casement windows with square-pane top lights, both with jambs and keyed labels. The two outer gables have central segmental-arched double doors flanked by narrow two-light casements with square-pane top lights.

The coal store to the right-hand return has an eaves dormer and an open side with a full-length rolled steel joist beneath the eaves. The left-hand return is largely blind.

At the rear, three identical gables with drip courses below upper lunette windows with moulded terracotta surrounds and raised keystones are evident. The central gable (engine house) has a central two-light casement window with square-pane top lights beneath a flat skewback arch with raised keystone, flanked by a round-headed doorway with a radial fanlight to the right and a blind window opening to the left with a flat skewback arch. The right-hand gable (boiler house) has a central double door flanked by narrow two-light casements with square-pane top lights, all with flat skewback arches, the doorway also with a raised keystone. The left-hand gable (coal store) has three blind segmental-headed openings, the central of which is wider and has a raised keystone.

Internally, documentary and photographic evidence has confirmed that all machinery related to the original use has been removed. The engine house and boiler house comprise a single open space with a blind arcade of round-headed arches to the return walls and glazed tiling to dado level. The roofs consist of arch cord king post trusses.