Crossness Pumping Station - Cleaning up London

Our ABH class visited Crossness Pumping Station this week to gather an inside view of the spectacular Victorian architecture and engineering feat designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette and Charles Henry Driver and described by Nikolaus Pevsner as a 'masterpiece of engineering - a Victorian cathedral of ironwork'.

The pumping station was instrumental in cleaning up London after The Great Stink - the infamous event which lead to death and disease amongst the city's population.  Bazalgette's design took the pollution from the metropolitan area and pumped it away from the city, resulting in a cleaner and safer environment.