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Wapping Hydraulic Power Station

Energy infrastructure completed in 1890Former power stations in LondonGrade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Tower HamletsGrade II* listed industrial buildingsWapping
Wapping Hydraulic Power Station 1
Wapping Hydraulic Power Station 1

The Wapping Hydraulic Power Station (built 1890) was originally run by the London Hydraulic Power Company in Wapping, London, England. Originally, it operated using steam, and was later converted to use electricity. It was used to power machinery, including lifts, across London. The Tower Subway was used to transfer the power, and steam, to districts south of the river.The surviving complex consists of the engine house, boiler house, water tanks, accumulator tower, reservoir, boiler master's house, seven 1950s throw ram pumps, a 1950s pilot accumulator, a gantry crane, two transformers and switchgear. It is located at Wapping Wall. The building was designated a grade II* listed building in December 1977. After its closure as a pumping station on 30 June 1977, the building was converted by architectural practice Shed 54 and reopened by Jules Wright, as an arts centre and restaurant (Wapping Food). It held its first exhibition in 1993, and opened in a new form in 2000. Exhibitions were mounted across the building including the Boiler House and the Engine House, with most of the original equipment still in place. Women's Playhouse Trust sold the building in 2013 to focus on its core mission of commissioning new art. In 2013, the freehold of the building was sold to developers UK Real Estate Ltd.In March 2019 planning applications were submitted to Tower Hamlets Council for extensive renovation of the existing buildings, new buildings and extensive earth works of the old water reservoirs below the south court yard. The buildings are intended for office and restaurant space. Work is planned to commence in summer 2020 for completion during summer 2021.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Wapping Hydraulic Power Station (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Wapping Hydraulic Power Station
Wapping Wall, London Shadwell

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Latitude Longitude
N 51.506666666667 ° E -0.0525 °
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Wapping Wall 70
E1W 3SS London, Shadwell
England, United Kingdom
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Wapping Hydraulic Power Station 1
Wapping Hydraulic Power Station 1
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Shadwell Basin
Shadwell Basin

Shadwell Basin is a housing and leisure complex built around a disused dock in Wapping, London. The old dock was formerly part of the London Docks, a group of docks built by the London Dock Company at Shadwell and Wapping as part of the wider docks of the Port of London. Today Shadwell Basin is one of the most significant bodies of water surviving from the historical London Docks. It is situated on the north side of the river Thames east (downstream) of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge and west (upstream) of Limehouse. Unlike some of the London Docks which have been landfilled, Shadwell Basin, the most easterly part of the complex, has been retained. It is now a maritime square of 2.8 hectares used for recreational purposes (including sailing, canoeing and fishing) and is surrounded on three sides by a waterside housing development designed by British architects MacCormac, Jamieson, Prichard and Wright. The residential buildings are four and five storeys with façades of alternating open arches and enclosed structure, echoing the scale of traditional 19th century dockside warehouses, with a colonnade at quayside. The development, made up of Newlands Quay, Maynards Quay and Peartree Lane, was added to the National Heritage List for England by Historic England as Grade II listed in 2018, part of a first-ever listing of Post-Modern buildings.Shadwell Basin has Benson Quay on its south-west corner with its south side overlooked by Riverside Mansions in Milk Yard and the Monza Building in Monza Street and, at its south-eastern end, the former Wapping Hydraulic Power Station building. On the north side of Shadwell Basin, east of Newlands Quay, St. Paul's Church, Shadwell provides a dramatic backdrop with its spire and the St Paul's Church Conservation Area extends to the water's edge with a terraced quayside that includes an outdoor gym. A Scherzer Bascule bridge spans one of the entrances on the East side of the basin. This was built in the 1930s by the Port of London Authority and was restored by the London Docklands Development Corporation during their redevelopment of the site in the 1980s. Shadwell Basin is a popular public route for cyclists, joggers and pedestrians with a walkway alongside the water as part of the linked open spaces and canals between the river and Hermitage Basin near St Katharine Docks to the west.