The tallest standpipe tower in London could soon reopen to the public

Do you know what a standpipe is? Us neither, until this week when we heard that London’s tallest one could soon be re-opening to the public. 

A remnant of the Victorian era, standpipe towers (not to be confused with the also Victorian stinkpipes) are towers that were used to regulate water pressure in the era of early steam-powered pumping engines. Fascinating stuff, eh?

So, if you’re a fan of engineering from the olden days, you are going to want to hear this news. The London Museum of Water and Steam is crowdfunding so that it can re-open its 1867-built standpipe. The 210-foot-tall tower is a bit of landmark in Brentford, west London. Its design is inspired by the architecture of Italian church towers and inside it contains five impressively large vertical cast-iron pipes – it’s the only surviving full-height standpipe tower in the world with its original pipework intact.

The tower had to close to the public in 2019 due to internal decay and contamination. The biggest problem? During the pandemic the tower became infested with pigeons, leaving it to become absolutely caked in pigeon poo. But it could be about to make a comeback, if the museum can raise £15,000 to go with the £30,000 grant it has already received to restore the landmark. 

Once all the bird crap is removed, visitors will be able to climb the structure to get panoramic views over Brentford, Kew Gardens, and central London landmarks like the Shard and Canary Wharf. The museum is hoping to have raised funds by August 2025, and will start work as soon as possible after that. 

Want to help? You can donate to the fundraiser online here. 

London Waterloo has unveiled a £1 billion fleet of ‘platform hoover’ trains to tackle extreme overcrowding. 

London Heathrow Airport has unveiled a huge multi-billion-pound plan to add up to 10 million more passengers. 

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