Monday, January 27, 2014

Heraldry at London's "Cathedral of Sewage"


A friend recently sent me a link to an article entitled "London's Cathedral of Sewage" about the Abbey Mills pumping station, which was built in the mid-1860s as part of sewage treatment system.  Designed by architect Charles Driver and engineers Joseph Bazalgette and Edmund Cooper, the building has a cruciform layout with intricate Byzantine architecture, making the place look like some kind of a monastery, hence the nickname, "Cathedral of Sewage."

The article has a number of photographs of the exterior and interior of the no-longer-used pumping station, including this great piece of armorial ironwork (click on the picture to see a larger version):


The arms shown here are:

Center:  The Royal Arms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

And clockwise, beginning at the one o'clock position:

     Borough of Guildford
     Borough of Westminster
     Borough of Colchester
     County of Kent
     City of London
     County of Essex

The full article and all of the accompanying photographs (including the one above) can be found on-line at: http://whenonearth.net/londons-cathedral-sewage/

Once again, it's true; you can find heraldry everywhere.  Even in the pumping station of a sewage treatment system.

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