Abbey Mills Pumping Station

Abbey Mills Pumping Station is a sewage pumping station built in 1868, designed by architects Sir J Bazalgette and E Cooper in the Italian Gothic style. The building features a Greek Cross plan and is constructed of yellow brick with red and blue brick and stone dressings. It has a slate mansard roof and stands two storeys high, with dormers. The entrance wing and the ends of the other arms are five bays wide, featuring a round-headed central entrance porch. The round-headed windows are decorated with polychrome details, and there is a larger central window on the upper storey, divided by elaborate cast ironwork. A heavy stone string course runs along the ground and first floors, topped by a modillioned eaves cornice. The entrance includes an elaborate timber door with foliated ironwork, and the recessed sash windows are framed by slightly pointed yellow and red brick arches. At the center, there is an octagonal domed lantern with round-arched gabled windows on each face, which contain cast iron tracery, and the dome is adorned with elaborate wrought iron cresting. The interior is flamboyant, featuring enriched cast ironwork and a central octagonal lantern. Although the original beam engines have been removed, the building retains intricate stone carvings both outside and inside.