Abbey Pumping Station : Attraction of Leicester

The Abbey Pumping Station is a museum in Leicester, England, on Corporation Road, opposite the National Space Centre.

It was an industrial building used to pump sewage to treatment works at Beaumont Leys, and was opened in 1891 The grand Victorian building and beautifully decorated beam engines were a cause of great civic pride. It continued open until 1964, and then underwent renovation. It opened as a museum in 1972. It is one of a number of historic pumping stations which have been preserved.

The four beam engines were built in Leicester by Gimson and Company and today are rare examples of Woolf compound rotative beam engines. These Engines are rated at 200hp, at 12-19rpm, of which they pumped 208,000 gallons of sewage an hour. Three of the four engines have been restored back to working condition.