Crossness Pumping Station: The Great Stink

The Great Stink - Crossness Pumping Station: The Cathedral of Sewage

 

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. The ironwork still glows. And the story of how sanitation shaped modern life is told here, in the place that helped make it possible.

 

The visit starts with tea, coffee and biscuits, there is a short film on the sanitation crisis that led to Crossness, a guided tour of the site and historic beam engine and is finished off with a buffet lunch.

 

Crossness Pumping Station was the highlight for many of our customers on our 2026 February Blues Buster.

 

Thursday 4 February 2027

Pick ups: Route A2

 

£69 per person

 

Price includes:

Guided Tour of Crossness Pumping Station

Buffet Lunch at Crossness Pumping Station

Return Coach Travel

 

• Most of the tour is step-free. However the upper floor of the Beam Engine House has steep stairs. There is a screen showing the upper floor available for those who cannot make the stairs.

• Dress for the weather. It is a draughty Victorian building and parts of the tour are outside.

• Wear flat shoes. The upper Beam Engine House floor is perforated iron and is not suitable for heels.

Crossness Pumping Station