Description

787/0/10184
30-JUL-03

COUNTRY WAY
Hanworth
The Primary Filter House, Kempton Park

II

Primary filter house, 1927-9, by Henry Stilgoe, Chief Engineer for the Metropolitan Water Board. Reinforced concrete, concrete roof, metal windows.
PLAN: Central wash water tower, with flanking wings, each containing 12 sand filter tanks, on raised terrace, to each side of single storey spinal range housing outlet weirs and outlet channel; basement engine house and services. EXTERIOR: Symmetrical; central tower, slightly battered, of three stages, with flanking single storey six-bay ranges, raised above partly concealed tanks and basements. Central steps between pair of rectangular battered pavilions with channelled rustication in roughcast concrete, with three vertical recessed panels above; and set forward from higher, outer bastions of filter house terrace. Entrance a pair of part- glazed panelled timber doors in timber frame, within flat, low relief concrete architrave with panel above inscribed Metropolitan Water Board. Crittal windows flanking entrance and in upper stages recessed in three vertical channels. Blank upper stage set back, with recessed parapet, formerly housing wash water tank. North and south elevations repeat the theme with pair of triple vertical channels housing recessed Crittal windows. West elevation as east. Battered pavilions at inner and outer angles of filter house terrace, each quadrant with six external tanks. Six bay single storey spinal range, the outer and inner bay accentuated, and detailed as tower, with tripartite windows in plain openings, on three elevations; former Crittal windows largely replaced with timber casements or fixed lights. Bays between with a broader rhythm of alternating roughcast panels and tripartite windows, former Crittal windows largely replaced with timber casements or fixed lights.
INTERIOR: Central splayed staircase with piers and retaining walls in reconstituted stone, the outer faces with incised fielded panels; skirtings and copings in buff reconstituted stone. Concrete framework of tower retains concave seating for former compressed air cylinders. Middle stage, a well-lit gallery with two arcades of concrete piers supporting former wash water tanks at upper stage, behind parapet. Longitudinal ranges supported on pair of cranked arcades with slender concrete shafts, flanking filtered water outlet channel within parapet wall; similar outlet weir to each bay; parapet walls, dados and skirtings in green glazed tiles. Longitudinal inspection gallery to each flank.
HISTORY: Preliminary filtration was used from the early C20. Rapid filters were first introduced by the MWB in 1926 at Walton. Those at Kempton Park were built after the Triple Expansion Engine house increased the volume of water arriving at Kempton, and performed the preliminary filtration before passing to the slow sand filter beds. The filter tanks were washed out after having compressed air blown through them, which was pressurized by the head of the wash water in the central tower. Kempton Park is the first to have used the patented compressed air cleaning method which necessitated the expressive central tower. Part of a nationally important water-processing complex, this is an exceptionally monumental public utilities building of the 1920s possessing strong architectural presence.

SOURCES: Henry E. Stilgoe, 'Kempton Park Pumping Station, Metropolitan Water Board, 1929', in Engineering, October 4 & 11, 1929; Architecture Illustrated, June 1930, p2.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26669931

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
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  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)