Surbiton Pumping Station
Confusingly, the names Chelsea and Lambeth are associated with Surbiton Pumping Station, as will be explained.
The 1898 O.S. map here shows filter beds and a series of reservoirs set between the River Thames and Portsmouth Road in Long Ditton, Surrey. On the opposite side of the road are buildings identified as Chelsea Water Works. The area named Seething Wells is immediately to the north east. Immediately adjacent, on the south western side, is a group of buildings, a filter bed and reservoirs identified as Lambeth Water Works.
In 1932, Engineering[1] described the re-modelling of an old Metropolitan Water Board pumping station, which involved the conversion of existing plant and buildings to modern requirements in stages, as against the erection of a new building and plant. Extracts follow.
'... the Surbiton station now contains the largest plant concentrated in one house that the Board possesses, there being four steam turbines driving centrifugal pumps, aggregating about 5,000 water horse-power. The station consists of the combined works of two earlier water companies, viz., the Lambeth Water Works, dating from 1850, and the Chelsea Waterworks, dating from 1854. The stations of both companies adjoined each other at Surbiton, and both drew their supply directly from the River Thames, at points within 100 yards of each other. The Lambeth Company pumped the water, after sand filtration, to service reservoirs at Brixton, from which part was re-pumped to six other service reservoirs at Norwood, Selhurst, Streatham-liill, Forest-hill and the Crystal Palace tank, respectively, while in the year 1882 water was also supplied to the neighbouring district of Coombe. The Chelsea Company pumped the water, after filtration, into the service reservoirs on Putney Heath, from whence it gravitated into the important districts of Fulham, Chelsea and Westminster. Naturally, plant installed as far back as the eighteen-fifties, when no one was able to visualise the future enormous expansion of Greater London, soon proved to be inadequate and increase in pumping capacity was called for again and again. By way of illustrating this growth, as well as providing a readily-accessible record, we give, in Table I, a list of the engines and boilers of the two works showing the conditions before the re-modelling was begun, and arranged in chronological order. From this list it will be seen that a very considerable portion of the machinery was of such an age that its condition was beginning to demand replacement ....'. There followed a list of 14 reciprocating engines, installed between 1850 and 1895, turbines (1924), and 71 boilers of the Cornish or Lancashire type. '.... It was decided that the scheme offering the most advantages by enabling more economical large, and relatively cheaper, units to be employed, was to concentrate the work of both the Chelsea and Lambeth supplies in one house. The buildings of the Lambeth works were selected for this purpose, asthey offered greater advantages than those of the Chelsea works in the lay-outof the suction mainsandthe coal-handling plant. The old main buildings included a high engine house constructed to accommodate beam engines and a lower boiler house containing Cornish boilers. The functions of these were reversed, the new turbine generating sets now installed going into the old boiler house and the new water-tube boilers into the old engine house. Of the plant detailed in the list above, the Worthington engines, with their six Lancashire boilers, and the “ K ” turbine sets with five Lancashire boilers are to be retained as standby machinery. The latter boilers are situated in an annexe to the water-tube boiler house and are to be fitted with mechanical stokers fed from the new bunkers, a convenient arrangement only made possible by the change in lay-out above referred to.
'As regards the re-arrangements for the water supply and delivery, it may be noted that the use of the old intakes at Surbiton was discontinued by the Lambeth Company in 1874, and by the Chelsea Company in 1877, the former company constructing a new intake at Molesey, while the latter also placed its new intake there, about half a mile higher up the river. Both companies built storage reservoirs, and installed machinery drawing water from the river, but when the Metropolitan Water Board took over the works it was found to be more economical to draw the unfiltered water from a point still higher up the river, viz., at Walton, and then to pump it into the Walton, Island Barn and Molesey storage reservoirs with the new machinery installed at Walton. The mains carrying this water to the Surbiton works from the Island Barn and Molesey reservoirs comprise a brick culvert 5 ft. 9 in. by 4 ft. 6 in., one cast-iron main 54 in. in diameter, and three 36 in. in diameter. It is filtered through 28 slow-sand filter beds, having a total area of 30 acres, situated round the plant at Surbiton.
'.... The major portion of the new machinery consists of four steam turbines, two of which can carry the full normalstation load. These each drive, through reduction gearing, a centrifugal main pump and a centrifugal booster pump arranged in series on the shaft. Two of the turbines drive, in addition, an electric generator of 200-kw. capacity. The generator is direct-driven from the main shaft, which has a disconnecting coupling, operable by hand while the engine is running, so that it can be cut out when necessary. All four of the main units differ in detail, the reason for this lying in the necessity for flexibility in the pumping system, each unit being capable of pumping to any district, ....'.
'The machinery to be installed when the above plant is in regular operation and the old plant can be dispensed with, will comprise electrically-driven and water-driven pumps for raising filtered water from the low-level filter beds into the suction tank of the main units, and also for raising raw unfiltered water from the low-level to the high-level reservoir in the event of a breakdown to the main from Island Barn Reservoir. The variation in the relative quantities required in the two districts served by the same unit will be balanced by using either surplus low- or high-pressure water for operating the water-turbine driven low-lift pumps and the auxiliaries or driving them electrically if the whole of the water is required in the district. The tail-race water from the water turbines will return directly to the main filtered-water culvert. ....'
'The turbines were supplied by Messrs. Fraser and Chalmers’ Engineering Works, Erith. The working pressure is 250 lb. per square inch, and the superheat 200 deg. F. The normal speed is 5,715 r.p.m. .... The reduction gear was supplied by Messrs. David Brown and Sons (Huddersfield), Limited, Huddersfield. ... The pumps were supplied by Messrs. Worthington Simpson .... The boilers were constructed by Messrs. John Thompson Water-Tube Boilers, Limited, Wolverhampton. ....'
'The problem of handling the coal was a complex one, but has been satisfactorily solved. An outline arrangement of the plant is shown in Figs. 9 to 12, page 468. Formerly, the coal supply was transported in man-handled trucks, from the wharf, to which it was delivered by barge, through a tunnel under the Portsmouth road to the coal-storage house. The new plant provides for mechanical handling and consists essentially of a 3 1/2-ton electrical travelling jib crane, two endless-belt conveyors, and a gravity bucket conveyor. The crane, supplied by Messrs. Thomas Smith and Sons (Rodley), Limited, Rodley, has hoisting, derricking, slewing and travelling motions, all operated by separate motors. The grab has a capacity of 1 1/2 tons, and is self-dumping. In the new plant, the coal is delivered, as before, by barge, but is now unloaded by the crane, which has a traverse covering the length of the barge. The grab deposits the coal into a hopper, having a capacity of 25 tons, and situated at the end of the first belt conveyor. The hopper is fitted with an automatic weighing machine provided with a counter for registering each weighing, as well as the total weight delivered to the conveyor. This conveyor is 443 ft. long between centres, and consists of a four-ply rubber belt running on self-aligning ball-bearing idler pulleys. It passes through the old subway under the Portsmouth-road.'. Note: The tunnel passed directly under the gatehouse on Portsmouth Road.
Normal (and emergency) capacities: 45 (60) million tons of filtered water per day; 2333 (3100) water HP, with four steam turbines driving a total of eight centrifugal pumps and two generators, shown in the photograph above; seven electrically-driven and four water turbine-driven centrifugal pumps, one water-driven generator, three water-tube boilers.
This completes the extracts from the 1932 article.
Zoomable photo of a 1932 turbine here
Thames Water Archive Photographs
See here for links to numerous photographs in the Thames Water Archive, under the heading 'Surbiton'. Some examples:-
This 1929 aerial photograph clearly shows the extent of the reaervoirs and filter beds and their relation to the old waterworks buildings and to the River Thames.
See here[2] for a 1931 photo of the 1850 James Watt and Co beam engine at Surbiton Pumping Station. It is now located outdoors at Loughborough University.
See here, here, and here here for 1936 photos of 'Chelsea' beam engines at Surbiton.
This 1941 photo shows bomb blast protection walls round the turbine pump units.
Later Developments
This 1972 photo from the Thames Water Archive implies that the steam turbines had been replaced by electric motors to drive the pumps in the former turbine hall.
The water treatment works was privatized as part of Thames Water in 1989, and it was mostly decommissioned by Thames Water in 1992 — a pumping station on Seething Wells Lane now supplies the area with water from the Thames Water Ring Main.[3]
Many of the buildings still exist, though not used in connection with water supply.