B Station At Abbey Mills Pumping Station

The B Station at Abbey Mills Pumping Station is a pumping station built between 1891 and 1896, designed by Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice following a report by engineers Sir Benjamin Baker and Sir Alexander Binnie for the London County Council. The building is constructed of white stock brick with red and blue brick and stone dressings, topped with a hipped slate roof featuring a lantern at the ridge. It is a single-storey rectangular block with three by two bays, each bay gabled over blind arches that contain triple narrow round-headed sash windows. The style is loosely Venetian Gothic, characterized by arches with polychrome voussoirs, foliated stone impost bands, and delicate wrought-iron finials on the keystones. The gable parapets are stone coped, and there are cast-iron rainwater heads with barley-sugar downpipes forming corner shafts. Internally, the pumping floor is sunk deep below ground level, and the early pumping machinery has been replaced.

B Station was part of a series of works initiated in 1891 to enhance the capacity of Abbey Mills Pumping Station, which was crucial to Sir Joseph Bazalgette's major drainage program in the 1860s that established mains drainage for London. This station was specifically built to pump storm water from the Isle of Dogs branch sewer and to support the main engine house's pumping capacity when needed. The B Station is an important element of the historic group of structures at Abbey Mills, reflecting the early expansion of the complex to meet the demands of London's growing population, and it holds strong visual group value.