Crossness Pumping Station
Victorian sewage pumping station at Abbey Wood, south-east London.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| How Did The World Get So Ugly? | The Cultural Tutor | subject | Proof that sewers were once built as palaces. |
How Did The World Get So Ugly? — The Cultural Tutor (2025)
Source: Original · Readwise highlight
It’s an old sewage facility
- Role: subject
- In the video: The narrator shows an ornate building that looks like a palace or a church, then reveals it is a 19th-century pumping station from Bazalgette’s sewer system, next to the plain modern station that replaced it; later he names it as the model offices and warehouses could follow.
- Why it matters: The key exhibit for the argument that even utilitarian buildings were once built with ornamental pride.