Built Heritage baseline study © MOL Archaeology
4 Potential for the interpretation of archaeology and built heritage The complex of buildings at Crossness Pumping Station has been designated as a Conservation Area, and three have been Listed for their architectural and historic interest (see Appendix). The sewage treatment works contain some of the most prominent architectural highlights of East London; Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s Pumping Station and workshops, and the East London Sewage Incinerator. Crossness Pumping Station is currently being developed as a tourist destination for this part of London by the Crossness Engines Trust. Crossness is difficult to reach by public transport at present, so the Ridgeway footpath along the top of the Southern Outfall Sewer provides an ideal route for pedestrians from Plumstead or Thamesmead. As well as providing the basis for the Ridgeway footpath, the Southern Outfall Sewer embodies the history of the surrounding area. When it was constructed, it crossed an area of open marsh, which was largely uninhabitable owing to regular tidal flooding. The isolated nature of the environment made the Plumstead and Erith Marshes an ideal location for Woolwich Royal Arsenal to establish ordnance testing grounds, gunpowder magazines and other explosives storage facilities; the marshes were therefore rendered even less inhabitable, for reasons of safety and security. The tidal ranges that had rendered the marshes unsuitable for settlement made this stretch of the Thames the ideal location for the construction of Crossness Pumping Station, and required the construction of distinctive building types at Thamesmead, with ground floors that would not be inhabited, minimising the risk of damage to property and life by flooding. The present landscape has been shaped by the use and management of water, yet perversely, the river cannot be seen from the Southern Outfall; the construction of low-rise buildings on the former marshes to the north has blocked the view. There is the potential for future interpretation of the Southern Outfall and the Ridgeway to reflect on the area’s marshy past, when it was an other-worldly destination for writers like Richard Ruegg.
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APP E N D I X – B U I LT H ERI TA GE BA SELI NE STU DY
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THE RI DG EWAY
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