Hidden Hull - Springhead Pumping Station

KINGSTON UPON HULL SPRINGHEAD AVENUE (West side (off)) Springhead Pumping Station
Grade II Listed
Water pumping station, later waterworks museum. 1863, by Thomas Dale, engineer. Western addition 1876. Remodelled internally, east porch added and chimney demolished, 1956. Late C20 alterations. Red brick with yellow brick, moulded brick and ashlar dressings and slate and corrugated asbestos roofs. Main block and western addition have plinth, first-floor band, and moulded cornice with machicolations. Bays are divided by full height pilasters, and windows are set in shallow round-arched recesses. Windows are mainly round-arched metal-framed glazing bar casements with keystones. Main block, 2 storeys; 5-window range. Projecting central square stair tower, 2 stages, topped with an octagonal lantern with broaches, round-arched openings and a shallow pitched roof with a weather vane. Tall round-arched window and above, a round glazing bar window with 4 keystones under a pediment. Ground floor right return has a smaller window. On either side, 2 windows. Below, a similar smaller window and beyond, a taller window. Rear has 5 windows to the first floor. Right return has pedimented gable with a plain round window and above, a round-arched window. Below, a pedimented brick porch with glazed double door and fanlight with keystone. Single window on either side. To left of the main block, a single bay link building with a window between floors, and below it, a pair of board doors. 1876 addition, to west, 3 storeys; 5-window range. Ground-floor windows are taller. Second floor has pairs of smaller round-arched windows. Rear has similar fenestration to the upper floors. Right return has a round-arched window and above it, a graduated triple window. Below, a round-arched door with a round window above it. Left return has a blank round window in the gable and below, a glazed double door with fanlight, and above it, a round-arched window. At the rear, former boiler houses, single-storey; 11-window range. Windows are set in panels divided by pilasters. East side has 7 windows, then 2 blocked openings with inserted doors, then a window, and finally a blank bay. West side has blocked openings to left and to right, a lean-to projection with 2 windows flanked to left by two C20 doors with fanlights and to right by a segment-headed door and another window. INTERIOR. 1876 addition has iron trussed roof with wooden span beams. A hand cranked travelling crane runs on tracks at the top of the walls. In the south-west corner, a cast-iron spiral stair with first floor landing. Single acting Cornish beam engine with wrought-iron beam pivoted on 4 cast-iron Doric columns linked by segmental arches. Steam chest and valve gear are carried on a similar pair of columns, and the first floor landing gives access to them and to the piston rod. Fluted cast-iron pump cylinder has corniced top. Pump, ram and balance weight are carried by a girder frame set in a cast-iron well lining. The engine worked from 1876 to 1910. This building and engine are representative of C19 municipal water works, and illustrate how "...an architecture founded in objective functionalism ... could be used to create a polite and elegant building whose purpose was nevertheless unmistakeable." (Douet). (Yorkshire Water Museum: Springhead Pumping Station - A Brief Description; Bristol Polytechnic T&CP Working Paper No.28: Douet J: Temples of Steam: Bristol: 1992-: 15, 23).
Listing NGR: TA0416729436

[@mjallenuk]

Nicely done chap ... needs a lick of paint probably good to go again 😁

[@ellisfewster4998]

I live relatively close to spring head pumping Station and would think Fred Dibnah would be turning in his grave to think yorkshire water have allowed such a large piece of Hulls heritage to go basically derelict, its sad to see that other pumping Stations around the country have been turned into working museums through voluntary groups whilst ours is just left to rot .

[@poddy1957]

it's a shame that such a historical beam engine, is left in such a sorry state, another engineering masterpiece lost forever,

[@ramseybarber8312]

Hi Mike do you know of any plans to get this engine going again ,?

[@mykaskin]

Hi, it broke down in the early 1900's terminally and there is now so little of it left that it will never run again even if the original issue could be fixed.

[@rickfletcher2599]

I can’t believe how the UK has left such an extraordinarily valuable and historically significant beam engine to deteriorate to the state it is in as evidenced by this video. It’s beyond belief for a country which once led the world during the industrial revolution! Clearly it must be a question of money but you have managed that with other projects using proceeds from lotteries and various benefactors. Very sad!