To think that this Victorian beam engine in Markfield Park Tottenham would have looked much the same when fully in use as it does today. I can imagine budding engineers inspired to find out how these things work with the steam hissing away.
Tottenham, then a village, was one of the first areas to develop its own community water supply and drainage in the 1850s.
Built in 1888, this steam pump was used to move raw sewage through to filtering and treatment before discharge into the river Lea. Decommissioned in the 1960s, it languished for decades before being restored in 2007 and is now a working museum.
It’s a mighty beast, hissing away and keeping the whole building warm.
As with any mechanical thing, it needs constant lubrication. These small oil containers show the oil levels yet are so dainty they wouldn’t look out of place on a boudoir dressing table.
The spanners may not be quite as pretty but still offer aesthetic pleasure.
It’s impossible to photograph the whole thing from inside so here is a beautiful technical drawing of much of the mechanism. Calling it a sketch is almost dismissing the skill used to create such a drawing.
