Basic HTML Version
8
City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
The Great Stink
One organisation being soundly badgered by
the marketing team at City & Village Tours is
the trust that looks after the
Crossness
Engines
in South East London.
If you have joined us for an Olympic tour you
will have stood on Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s
Northern Outfall Sewer now known as The
Greenway to look out over the Olympic Park.
This was part of Bazalgette’s massive
Victorian sewer system built after the notorious
Great Stink of 1858 when the stench of
sewage in the Thames was so overpowering
that Parliament considered relocating.
The Southern Outfall Sewer led to a pumping
station at Crossness out on the Erith Marshes
just past Woolwich. Here Bazalgette built
a veritable Victorian Cathedral of Sewage,
combining the Italianate styling beloved of the
Metropolitan Board of Works with the brightly
painted decorative cast iron typical of
contemporary railway stations and the
Corporation of London’s Smithfield and
Leadenhall markets. The Beam Engine House
is a Grade I Listed Industrial Building and
contains the four original pumping engines
(although the cylinders were upgraded in
1901), which are possibly the largest
remaining rotative beam engines in the world,
with 52 ton flywheels and 47 ton beams.
Gravity brought London’s waste to Crossness
where it was stored in a vast tank waiting for
high tide when the steam engines powered
pumps to empty it into the Thames. The men
who operated the Crossness engines lived
here on the Thames Marshes with their
families in cottages built directly above the
sewage tanks with windows covered in mesh
to keep out the flies! It must have reeked to
high heaven but by Jove they grew fantastic
tomatoes! Generations of Crossness children
grew up in this remarkable environment
enjoying classes in their own schoolroom built
on site.
Funding from a number of sources including the
Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage
and the Homes and Communities Agency has
allowed the Crossness Engines Trust to embark
upon a programme of work which will enable the
completion of some much needed restoration work
to the main buildings.
The project also includes a brand new exhibition,
much improved visitor facilities and a new access
road into the site. As ever with such projects it is
running way behind the scheduled opening
(planned for 2011!) but we think it’s going to be
well worth the wait.
As soon as we get the green light from the chaps
at Crossness we will launch our itinerary
The Great Stink!
This unusual and entertaining day will tell the story
of spending a penny in London! With a coach tour
in central London that will navigate its way through
the hidden history of London’s waste disposal
followed by a tour of the refurbished Crossness
Engines it will be a breath of fresh air for your 2013
programme. Keep reading monthly editions of
The Kettle
for further news and announcements.
These are day trips aimed at National Trust,
University of the Third Age, Decorative & Fine Arts
Societies, Antiquarian and Historical Societies and
any other groups whose members enjoy getting
their teeth into a subject. Tours in development
include the history of the
East India Company
,
and
Turner & Pugin at the Kent Coast.
Here’s
a preview of a forthcoming trip that looks back to
the time of the crusades. Drop us an email if any
of these ideas catches your eye.
Brave Knights & Bandages
900 years after the foundation of the Knights
Hospitaller we offer a day out in London looking
at the history, mystery, myth and legacy of the
Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar who
were founded just twenty years later during the
First Crusade in the twelfth century.
A riveting tale of
Brave Knights & Bandages
takes your group on a journey with these military
“monks” who unlike more conventional monastic
orders existed not to provide a retreat from the
world but to guide pilgrims through it. During the
day we look at the role of the Knights Templar as
More New Lifelong
Learning Itineraries