Un Jour de Merde

I live in North London and, like most people in North London, have an ingrained prejudice against South London... a crime-ridden, depressed, cess-pit - they even gave up extending the Tube down there!

Well, when a friend of mine who lives in the nether regions of south east London suggested I visit a sewage works in the area it seemed like the irony of ironies. How could I refuse?

Actually, the purpose of the visit was the Crossness Pumping Station, build in the 1860s by Sir Joseph Bazalgette as part of the metropolitan sewerage system (still one of the largest engineering undertakings the world has ever seen). Although it's easy to joke about this now, remember that at the time it was built over 6000 people a year were dying of cholera in London - a quite sickening statistic.

The Beam Engine House is now a Grade 1 Listed Industrial Building constructed in the Romanesque style and features some of the most spectacular ornamental Victorian cast ironwork to be found today. It also 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.

The place is amazing - completely mad, over-the-top Victoriana - none of the drab, utilitarian functionality we have today. It's like Aladdin's cave in there!

And all this to pump sh*t !

You see, I always knew South London had a use :)