The London cholera epidemics of the early 19th Century were caused, and perpetuated, by contaminated drinking water. An engineer specialising in water supply had an idea: to extract water from the Thames upriver from the Teddington and Molesey locks, where it would be protected from the tidal back-wash of the heavily contaminated river in the capital. In 1852 the Hampton Water works were formed by Joseph Quick.
On the Upper Sunbury Road - I’m guessing this may have been an administrative centre
Quick created a series of filter beds beside the river and three pumping stations for three different water companies, bordering Thames Street. Water was pumped by steam-powered engines up to distant reservoirs and other pumping stations in the capital through large, buried brick culverts, and later cast iron pipes.
Riverdale Works, looking west at more of the Water Works buildings down Upper Sunbury Road
As London’s population rapidly grew in the latter part of the 19th Century, so did the demand for clean water. One of the water companies at Hampton, the Southwark & Vauxhall Water Co., responded to the demand and began to construct new, improved pumping stations on the current ‘Morelands’ site in 1870s and 80s.
At the forefront of such engine design was Sir James Restler, the Chief Engineer to the Southwark & Vauxhall Water Company. His design of the first rotative pumping engines was constructed by Moreland & Son in 1886, thus the Moreland Engine House takes its name. As steam and pumping technology rapidly evolved, so new and more efficient engines were added.
No sooner had the Moreland engines started to operate than Restler began designing even more efficient engines, and by 1900 the enormous Riverdale Engine House was supplying a vast proportion of the water to the capital.
In 1903 several of London’s water companies were incorporated into the Metropolitan Water Board, of which Sir James Restler later became Chairman. Each set of pumping engines were powered by steam created in vast boiler houses beside the engine houses. The boilers were fed around the clock with coal stored in large depots on site, in turn supplied by river barges and, later, a dedicated rail line from Kempton Park.
Labour-intensive coal-firing was superseded in the early 20th Century by diesel, to which the Riverdale engines were converted, but the older Cornish and Moreland engines were dismantled and the Morelands buildings became redundant. The vast chimneys were removed by the 1950s and a decade later pumping from the Riverdale engines stopped.
In 1973 the buildings passed from the Metropolitan Water Board to the Thames Valley Water Authority, later becoming Thames Water Utilities Ltd. Under the stewardship of the large utility providers there was little pressure to develop the vast buildings and they remained largely unaltered since removal of the engines, bar a few small offices formed within them.
The Morelands Engine House was listed (grade II) in 1968 and listed status was later extended to all the original buildings of the Hampton Waterworks to protect them. The buried Victorian pipe systems running throughout the site remain active today, and are subject to a continuous programme of repair.
In 2012 Thames Water sold the Morelands & Riverdale buildings to Mr Andrew Black. Thames Water still own and operate all the filter beds and the other original pump houses at the Hampton waterworks, west of this site.
From what I can see as I cycle past these enormous buildings, in the eight years since he purchased them Mr. Black hasn’t been that busy. At least not on this site.
The full history of London’s water supply and some outstanding, operational, original Victorian pumping engines can be seen at the excellent Kew Bridge and Kempton Steam Museums (see Post 99).
A view from around the back
And another
Red arrow: Shows the location of the buildings in the preceding photographs as they stretch along the Upper Sunbury Road. To the west is the still active Hampton Water Works.
1840-1870: Quick building a series of filter beds beside the river, and three original pumping stations for three different water companies
Late 1800s: This, and the next two photographs, show the response of the Southwark & Vauxhall Water Co. as they constructed new, improved pumping stations on the current ‘Morelands’ site in response to increasing demand for clean water with London’s rapidly growing population in the latter part of the 19th Century.
Early 1900s: Pumping engine in Riverdale building
Visit https://waterandsteam.org.uk for more information and pictures
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