A Palace of Iron and Steam

Why Crossness?

By the mid-nineteenth century, London’s population had outgrown its sanitation system. Sewage polluted streets and waterways, and cholera outbreaks killed thousands. In 1858, the year of the Great Stink, the smell of the Thames forced Parliament to act.

Joseph Bazalgette, chief engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works, led the design of London’s new main sewer system. At its southern outfall rose Crossness Pumping Station, now a Grade I listed “Cathedral of Sewage” of cast iron, brick and steam. Beauty and utility were meant to stand together for the common good.

On 4 April 1865 the Prince of Wales turned the handle and the great beam engines began their work. For generations they pumped London’s sewage away from the capital. Decommissioned in the 1950s and left to decay, the site was almost lost, until a determined group of enthusiasts refused to let it go.

Today the engines still stop visitors in their tracks. One, Prince Consort, is scheduled to run under steam on advertised Steaming Days. The ironwork still glows. And the story of how sanitation shaped modern life is told here, in the place that helped make it possible.