Boiler And Engine House At Goldstone Pumping Station

The Boiler and Engine House at Goldstone Pumping Station, now the British Engineerium museum, was built in 1866 for the Brighton, Hove, and Preston Constant Service Water Supply Company, with designs by Easton and Amos. It was enlarged in 1876 with a west engine house for the Brighton Water Corporation, engineered by Eastons and Anderson. The building ceased full operation in the late 1940s and was restored between 1974 and 1976.

The building is constructed of polychrome brickwork in yellow, red, and blue-purple, with some moulded brick detailing, and has slate roofs with skylights and coped verges.

The layout comprises two-storey beam engine houses flanking a single-storey boiler house. The eastern beam engine has been dismantled and is now part of the museum, while the western beam engine is fully operational. A fuel economiser room is located on the north front, and an underground tunnel connects to a former coal shed (listed separately). Remains of underground railway tracks are also present.

The south front features gable-fronted, three-bay, two-storey engine houses with pediments to the gable ends, bracketed cornices, and cast-iron windows. A continuous decorative string links the whole range. Rusticated ground floors feature central round-headed doorways with fanlights and panelled double doors, flanked by round-headed windows, all with linked entablatures. The central, single-storey range has similar windows, with the central bay projecting forward featuring a strongly moulded cornice and a segmental-headed opening with a fanlight, double doors, and ornamental metal grills. A four-bay return to the right displays renewed cast-iron railings that extend from the entrance around the west front.

Inside, an operational Eastons and Anderson beam engine, dated 1872, is present, alongside four boilers by Yates and Thom, Blackburn, dated 1934, and an E. Green and Son fuel economiser.