Central Station

EPSOM HORTON LANE TQ 1862-1962 (West side, off) 19/2 Central Station II

Hospital water, gas and electricity station now disused. Designed 1899, opened 1901. By Clifford Smith for London County Council. Yellow brick with red brick dressings; Welsh slate roofs. 3-stage water tower enclosed by lower 2-storey and 1-storey ancillary buildings forming L-shaped plan. Tower: ashlar cornices between stages; red-brick quoins, keystoned archivolts and shaped panels below windows. On south side, 2 round-arched windows to lower stage, lunette above; similar lunette to north side, and on west side 3 lunettes, outer ones smaller. Tall, red-brick machicolations to upper stage below projecting cornice on top of which is a metal water tank, the tops of its north and south sides being inverted- triangle-shaped. Attached to south side, a low 3-bay single-storey building, with segmental brick-arched windows (that on left small); raised, corbelled verges; and central ridge stack. Against west side is a similar, larger, 2-storey building, the end gables with keyed oculi and raised gable band. Projecting on east side of tower is an added 2-storey gabled block, not of special interest; but to right of this are 2 paired original, gabled, single-storey ranges having: keyed, round-arched windows, left range with 2 windows flanking tall recess right range with 3 windows; gable bands; and the roof ridges louvred. Interior: tower reported to retain well- head surrounded by railings on ball-finialed fluted columns and the pumping machinery and engine. 'this building served all five of the nearby London County Council hospitals and its facilities included a 400 foot well-shaft, a gas works, an electricity switching station, a weigh-bridge, a boiler house, an engine house, a storage-battery room, a machine-tool shop, a rail terminal, a 40,000 gallon water storage tank, a cooling water reservoir, electric lighting plant and water softening plant.

Unused and in a state of disrepair at time of inspection.

Listing NGR: TQ1928862047