Gatehouse And Boundary Wall At Kew Bridge Pumping Station

The building is a gatehouse and boundary wall, part of the Kew Bridge Pumping Station, constructed around 1838. A laboratory was added around 1902, and the front facade was rebuilt after bomb damage in 1918. The boundary wall dates to around 1845. It is built of London stock brick with a brick ridge stack and a slate roof.

The plan includes two office rooms on the north side, a porter’s lodge to the south by the former station entrance, and a laboratory to the rear. The exterior presents a twin-gabled front to the east. The doorway to the office is under a flat hood, with a segmental-arched window to the right, which was boarded at the time of inspection. A bracketed canopy in the gable previously sheltered the station clock, now in the Museum. A gable is set back to the left, leading to the former Lodge, which is attached to a gate pier. The right return features a wide window that projects forward, originally serving as the Superintendent’s office. A matching gable marks the addition of the former laboratory to the rear. The boundary wall extends approximately 80 meters to the west.

The interior is functional and lacks decorative details, with fireplaces that have been blocked up.

The pumping station was designed by William Anderson for the Grand Junction Waterworks Company to extract water from the Thames. It began operating in 1838, with filter beds dug to the rear of the gatehouse in 1845. Water extraction moved to Hampton in 1855. Kew Bridge Pumping Station is the oldest waterworks in the world retaining its original steam pumping engines and represents the most complete early pumping station in Britain. The gatehouse was part of Anderson’s original layout and housed the station's main offices, a porter’s room, and meter rooms for output monitoring. Following nationalization under the Metropolitan Water Board in 1903, a laboratory was added for water analysis, a notable early example reflecting a more scientific approach to water provision in the 20th century.