Tickets Alert: Visit the West India Docks Impounding Station
If you live near Canary Wharf, you might regularly pass a rather modest brick building, but hidden within is an industrial delight.
This is the West India Docks Impounding Station, and huge engines pump water into the docks to keep them filled and slightly higher than the Thames so that when dock gates are opened, water doesn’t rush into the docks. At full power, the three pumps inside the building can pump 65 million gallons into the docks over a four-hour period around high tide.
The Impounding Station was built as a replacement in 1930, and the three pumps they use are the original ones, and although the electric controls are now modern, they’ve retained the old controls in the room as well.
As an industrial facility, it’s not generally open to the public, but the Canal & River Trust occasionally runs tours – and the next dates have been announced.
Tours will take place on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th January 2025, and will includ both the outside and interior of the pumping station.
Tickets for the tours cost £16.76 for adults and £8.68 for children and are available from here.
The Impounding Station is on the corner of Marsh Wall and Westferry Road, about a 5 to 10 minute walk from Canary Wharf, for the Jubilee line, Elizabeth line or the DLR.
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