Description

The following building shallo be added:

SWAN AND PIKE LANE
TQ 39 NE
(east side)
21/287
Pump House at King George
Pumping Station
II
GV
Pump House. Opened 1913. Designed by William Booth Bryan for Metropolitan Water
Board. English bond red brick with limestone dressings, set on blue brick plinth;
hipped Welsh slate roof Edwardian Baroque style. 9 x 3 bay elevations. Corner
turrets with moulded stone cornices and diamond latticed windows; stone cill band
beneath turret windows continued as moulded stone string course beneath parapets
of main elevations. 9-bay side elevations have tall windows with glazing bars
set in semi-circular arched architraves, with moulded stone edge to each arch set
on moulded imposts, divided by rusticated brick pilasters; cast-iron casements
with glazing bars set in plinth beneath; wide raised pilasters flank narrow entrance
bay, which has bracketed hipped gablet and diamond-latticed lights set above tall
semi-circular architrave with glazing bars to window set in rusticated stone
surround above panelled door. Glazed clerestorey lights to roof. 3-bay end eleva-
tions have similar entrance bay with panelled double doors, flanked by narrow
revealed bays with glazing-bar windows, set in rusticated stone semi-circular arched
architrave above and square-headed architrave below. Interior: glazed white brick
walls, with dado and cornice of green brick; large cast-iron gantry moves along
top of cornices; cast-iron roof trusses. Gas bags, housed in 5 circular cast-iron
casings, supplied gas to 5 'Humphrey' gas pumps, housed in deep brick-lined pits,
of which two remain 'in situ'. Each cast-iron pump, built by Siemens Brothers
Limited, acted through internal combustion to raise 40 million gallons of water
from the Lea Navigation into the King George Reservoir each day. Each pit has
4 water admission valves, arranged in a ring casing around base of combustion
chamber, the water then being compressed into a cast-iron play pipe via the Water
Tower House (q.v.) and Inlet Pipes and Weir (q.v.) into the reservoir. The pumps,
the invention of H A Humphrey, dispensed with the usual pistons, flywheels etc,
and were provided with their momentum by the free movement or oscillation of water
between pump and tower: they are the first example of their type in the world.
(The Engineer, March 14, 1913, pp.269-275).

Listing NGR: TQ3728697892

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26352073

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)