There is a community consultation today about the future of Wapping Pumping Station – a proper consultation because I got to hear of it.

I had forgotten what a truly wonderful building it is. Not so much from outside where it is a group of low-key, partly industrial, partly Queen Anne Revival brick building to the south-east of the old London dock:-

But inside, it is spectacular – a cathedral of industrial power:-

It’s going to be turned into an arts space – an interesting parallel to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. They are doing it light touch – minimal intervention, rightly protecting as much as possible of the character of the original building.

But then, unlike the Bell Foundry, there is no planning consent requiring them to reinstate the machinery of hydraulic power.

Go and see it tonight if you can.