Pump House at King George Pumping Station
PUMP HOUSE AT KING GEORGE PUMPING STATION, SWAN AND PIKE LANE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1079456
- Date first listed:
- 25-Sept-1989
- List Entry Name:
- Pump House at King George Pumping Station
- Statutory Address:
- PUMP HOUSE AT KING GEORGE PUMPING STATION, SWAN AND PIKE LANE
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2005-10-10
- Reference:
- IOE01/14877/26
- Rights:
- © Mr Peter L. Herring. Source: Historic England Archive
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreAlso of interest
Official list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1079456
- Date first listed:
- 25-Sept-1989
- List Entry Name:
- Pump House at King George Pumping Station
- Statutory Address 1:
- PUMP HOUSE AT KING GEORGE PUMPING STATION, SWAN AND PIKE LANE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- PUMP HOUSE AT KING GEORGE PUMPING STATION, SWAN AND PIKE LANE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- Enfield (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 37286 97892
Details
The following building shallo be added:
SWAN AND PIKE LANE TQ 39 NE (east side) 21/287 Pump House at King George Pumping Station II GV Pump House. Opened 1913. Designed by William Booth Bryan for Metropolitan Water Board. English bond red brick with limestone dressings, set on blue brick plinth; hipped Welsh slate roof Edwardian Baroque style. 9 x 3 bay elevations. Corner turrets with moulded stone cornices and diamond latticed windows; stone cill band beneath turret windows continued as moulded stone string course beneath parapets of main elevations. 9-bay side elevations have tall windows with glazing bars set in semi-circular arched architraves, with moulded stone edge to each arch set on moulded imposts, divided by rusticated brick pilasters; cast-iron casements with glazing bars set in plinth beneath; wide raised pilasters flank narrow entrance bay, which has bracketed hipped gablet and diamond-latticed lights set above tall semi-circular architrave with glazing bars to window set in rusticated stone surround above panelled door. Glazed clerestorey lights to roof. 3-bay end eleva- tions have similar entrance bay with panelled double doors, flanked by narrow revealed bays with glazing-bar windows, set in rusticated stone semi-circular arched architrave above and square-headed architrave below. Interior: glazed white brick walls, with dado and cornice of green brick; large cast-iron gantry moves along top of cornices; cast-iron roof trusses. Gas bags, housed in 5 circular cast-iron casings, supplied gas to 5 'Humphrey' gas pumps, housed in deep brick-lined pits, of which two remain 'in situ'. Each cast-iron pump, built by Siemens Brothers Limited, acted through internal combustion to raise 40 million gallons of water from the Lea Navigation into the King George Reservoir each day. Each pit has 4 water admission valves, arranged in a ring casing around base of combustion chamber, the water then being compressed into a cast-iron play pipe via the Water Tower House (q.v.) and Inlet Pipes and Weir (q.v.) into the reservoir. The pumps, the invention of H A Humphrey, dispensed with the usual pistons, flywheels etc, and were provided with their momentum by the free movement or oscillation of water between pump and tower: they are the first example of their type in the world. (The Engineer, March 14, 1913, pp.269-275).
Listing NGR: TQ3728697892
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 200827
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
The Engineer in March 14, (1913), 269-275
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 29-Jun-2026 at 11:16:23.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.