Quinquennial Inspection

Property: Abbey Mills Pumping Station A

Project: Quinquennial Inspection

Service:  Survey & Inspection, Reporting, Schedules of Repair & Maintenance, Design & Specification

Completed by Nicholas Kelly during previous employment with Dovetail Building Consultants

Property Listing: Grade 2* (of more than special interest)

Significance: Designed to house 8 beam engines, constructed between 1865-8 by Joseph Bazalgette, Station A is often described as a cathedral to sewage.

One of several listed structures on the site, the Station A was built in a Italian Gothic style based on a Greek cross-plan, and is heavily ornamented and decorated with elaborate stone carving & ironwork externally, and flamboyant enriched cast-ironwork to the interior.

The building is finished with a central iron lantern & dome above mansard roofing, all finished with decorative ironwork.

Value: Estimated value of works, £1.4M

Issues & Operational Needs Arising & Addressed:

The building survives in use today, though without its beam engines. One of Thames Water’ heritage flagship buildings, Station A and the surrounding operational buildings were showing signs of water ingress and decay.

Briefed to inspect the 16 historic site buildings and report on current & future needs and budgets, standard reporting forms were agreed before site inspections, including high resolution aerial drone surveys were carried out of the buildings which were in various states of survival from bombed ruins to operational historic buildings.

With a primary focus on maintaining the buildings in a good wind & weathertight and structural order, to reduce decay and provide safe working conditions, prioritised Repair and Planned Periodic Maintenance (PPM) Schedules were populated by elevation, area & building elements, incorporating projected cost data and management classifications (aesthetic, control decay, fire safety, health & safety, security, structural, wind & weathertight) to allow client interrogation and budgetary allocations. An additional Monthly Maintenance Planner, with budget costings, was produced with the PPM to allow ease of use by site management.

Detailed schedules of works and specifications were then prepared for Priority 1 & 2 works (immediate & urgent safety, structural & wind/weathertight works) for pricing and delivery.

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