Sewage Sensbilities

In visiting Crossness Sewage Station, I was most struck by the pride with which it had evidently been constructed. Sewage is not something I have ever thought much about. The construction of sewers and sewer stations, underneath our streets and far into the countryside, encourages us to keep this essential part of modern urban life out of sight and mind. So I was a little surprised when Professor Durant picked not an architect of imposing buildings or an inventor of industrial technology, but the designer of London’s sewage system, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, as his example of an “engineer as hero.” But that was nothing compared my admiration in seeing Bazalgette’s work for myself, at the Crossness Sewage Station. True, at first glance and smell, the station didn’t seem remarkable, but then we saw the pumping room, one of whose pumps has been restored to its full Victorian splendor. These are machines with the most utilitarian, unglamorous of uses: after a long slow descent through Bazalgette’s enormous sewers, the waste was pumped up a few feet at Crossness before being released into a reservoir and then into the Thames at high tide. And yet, the machines were gorgeous. The restored pump, named the Prince Consort after Victoria’s husband, is painted in bright, even gaudy, colors and surrounded by columns and grates similarly decked in reds, blues, and greens, with, of course, painted iron flowers.



















(Click here to see the Prince Consort in action.) When put in motion, the pump had all the color and excitement of a carnival ride, and I then could see how the Victorians would indeed have considered Bazalgette a heroic figure. The juxtaposition of this festivity with the surrounding rusted building reflected the contrast between Victorian pride in and modern dismissal of a system that makes modern cities possible. I understand that being relieved from both a “Great Stink” and the recurrence of an epidemic would make Victorians especially proud and conscious of their achievement, and I certainly understand the modern attitude of not wanted to think about the messy bits and pieces that make cities work more than necessary. But I wish we could share some of that pride in improving urban life as we make our cities, especially their energy use, cleaner and healthier.