Soup to nuts

A breaking news story:

The Lynn News reports that English Heritage (the quango with the most clout in these matters) has decided not to list the Campbell's soup tower (a water tower) that has dominated the skyline for fifty years in the town and is a object of local affection, as water towers often are. This paves the way for site developer Tesco to demolish it.

While BWTAS takes a neutral stance on preservation issues, it does take issue with the criteria used to determine "architectural merit" as all the studies of water towers we've seen published, including those by English Heritage, say knowledge of the subject is scant, which of course is our raison d'être. 


According to the paper's letters page, there's no shortage of support for the tower and even some serious proposals for alternative use, such as a climbing wall facility, which other water towers have been successfully converted to.

If you want to raise a stink, perhaps start with contacting the Lynn News news desk; newsdesk@lynnnews.co.uk or leave a comment on their Facebook site or here. Even better, write to your MP and ask them to ask the Secretary of State for Culture to reconsider.

Campbell's Tower will be demolished

Campbell's Tower - doomed

Published Date: 06 January 2010

THE last ditch bid to save the landmark Campbell's Tower at Lynn has crumbled.

English Heritage and the Secretary of State for Culture have decided against granting listed status to the tower, leaving the site's new owners, Tesco, free to demolish it and change the town's skyline forever.

Lynn Civic Society admits it is disappointed by the ruling but has said that it wants to work with the supermarket giant to make sure the history of the soup factory and tower is catalogued and features in the new development.

The bid to save the 50-year-old tower was backed by conservationists and by Lynn readers who took part in an on-line poll. But this week English Heritage decided it is not important enough to save.

It said in a statement: "While we are sensitive that there is a lot of local affection for the former soup factory, and especially the water tower, our role is to objectively assess the claims made for listing.
We must do this in the context of its national significance and special historical and architectural interest.

"Unfortunately, this building does not merit adding to the list."

Elizabeth James, the Civic Society member who masterminded the listing application, said: "Yes, we are disappointed. We didn't know whether or not we would be successful but thought we should at least make the attempt.

"The warm response of the public to the publicity had made clear the affection in which the tower is held and which, indeed, is recognised by EH's own researchers.

"Its report is certainly not unsympathetic to the building and agrees that the tower is undoubtedly of local significance. But too many other elements militated against listing."

She said that Tesco's corporate affairs manager and planning adviser Nick Gellatly has agreed to display historical information about the tower in a new building and would like to hear from people who worked on the factory during its construction so that reminiscences can be compiled and kept.

He has asked to meet the Civic Society again early in the New Year.

Clifton water tower hunt

updated 6/7/10 (see bottom of page).




Over the last few days the wires at BWTAS have been humming. After coming across this 1994 online newspaper article (which had stripped out the relevant images) about a tower near Clifton in Somerset, some members have been trying to locate an image of it but it has been elusive. This is nothing new to water tower hunters but this time we thought we'd do a bit of crowd-sourcing and see if anyone can help us locate an image via this blog.

It's not this observatory, often misidentified as a water tower, near the Clifton bridge.

It's not this 1957 concrete water tower also in sight of the bridge on Stoke Road (via Geograph).

It's not the 1905 Knowle Water Tower in Jubilee Road in Bristol which is close to the Cadburys factory (via Clare Johnson).

It's very like to be this tower located on the corner of St. Mary's Road and Church Road in Leigh Wood but we'd really like a street level photo to properly match the description (via Bing).

Can anyone help us locate a better image and whatever became of the water tower's owner Mr. West in the end?

If you have an image of this tower, please send us a link via the comments page.

THE INDEPENDENT Thursday, 12 May 1994

HARRY WEST has always had an eye for nice old buildings that other people have finished with and want to pull down. Years ago, as director of the Greater London Arts Association, he showed local authorities how to convert banana warehouses into film studios.

In 1976, newly-retired as a recreational teacher, the wartime Hurricane fighter pilot saw a 47ft- tall castellated Victorian water tower for sale in Leigh Woods, Bristol.

The stone tower, with its commanding views, had been built in 1868, four years after Brunel's Clifton suspension bridge crossing the nearby Avon Gorge. Its owners, the Bristol Waterworks Company, had put it on the market with planning permission for demolition and replacement by a block of flats.

'I told them knocking it down would be a crime against humanity,' Mr West said.

The building was not listed, but even though Woodspring District Council tried to do so, there was little enthusiasm at the time for preserving industrial architecture and the Department of the Environment ruled that it was of local, not national, interest.

Mr West said: 'In fact it was one of the first towers of its kind in Britain. It was built to provide water for the Cadburys and Wills and their retainers, including two gigantic family Victorian houses for the Wills. So it's in this exclusive gentlemen's residential area and as water towers go, it's posh.'

Mr West sank his life savings into a five-room conversion job that respected the old tower's history. He removed 35 tons of stone by hand to create windows for living rooms, bathrooms and a big third-floor guest room.

'I tried to keep the concept of a tower so you walk through the front door and up the building with open-plan stairs,' he said.

'I retained all the industrial features like the 30ft pipe which delivered water to the people of Leigh Woods and is now a chimney for my wood-burning stove.'

The original 25ft-square water tank, built by Bristol Wagon Works in 1867 and weighing 300 tons when full, is still in place surrounded by a gallery.

Now aged 72, and with his eyesight failing, Mr West has decided the time has come to pass on his personal act of conservation to a younger generation.

After 22 years inside the tower's 4ft-thick walls, he has put the old tower on the market for offers in excess of £245,000.

Suffering from glaucoma and soon no longer able to drive, he wants to move to Bristol to be able to continue his latest career as a teacher of ballroom dancing.

'I've got to move on, to do new things as I've always done, to travel,' he said. 'But I'll miss the old tower. It's got my heart and soul in it now.'

6/7/10 update

Bingo! 

Thanks to Wilco Krul of the Netherlands who was holidaying in England, we now have an image of the tower in Leigh Woods. Thank you Mr Krul. The 'crowd sourcing' experiment is declared a success.

Landmark Lendal Tower up for sale

The Lendal Tower in the city of York is up for sale. Previously described in this blog, according to the Yorkshire Post the 700 year old tower is on the market for £650,000 in a distress sale of the assets of colourful property speculator David Hattersley.

The particulars available from Carter Jonas include the tower and several buildings and cottages.

From the Yorkshire Post:

Seven hundred years of history

Lendal Tower has stood next to the River Ouse since about 1300. It was built to help defend the city and housed a great iron chain that could be pulled across the river to the Barker Tower opposite. This gave protection in times of trouble and enabled tolls to be levied on river traffic. In 1677, the tower was leased for 500 years to the York Waterworks company established by Henry Whistler. It became the city's first waterworks with a horse- powered pump supplying the water via pipes made from hollowed out tree trunks.

After Mr Whistler died the concern was sold to Col William Thornton of Cattal and later to Jerome Dring in 1779 for £7,000 with shares held by John Smeaton, designer of the Eddystone Lighthouse. Mr Smeaton helped improve the steam engine at the waterworks, which in 1836 was given its own dedicated engine house. Lendal Tower's tank was also removed in the mid-1800s lowering the building by 10ft, and railway architect George Townsend Andrews added the medieval, crenellated roof. It was then used as stores and offices for the waterworks company that eventually became part of Yorkshire Water.

Stanbridge Road, Leighton Buzzard (1896)

This photograph of the Victorian water tower, that stood to the south of Stanbridge Road, at about SP 935 247, was kindly sent to me by Bedford Borough Council after I found details of this tower on their web site. The tower was about a hundred feet high and was demolished in the 1950's. The official guide to Leighton Buzzard of 1910 noted: "The council are the owners of the waterworks and provide a constant supply of pure and wholesome water, which is provided free of cost for domestic purposes. The water is obtained from a well over 200 feet deep, bored into the lower greensand, and is capable of yielding a supply of 164,000 gallons per day. The latest analysis made by an eminent public analyst states that the water is "simply perfect" and "is excellent water for public supply"".

There was another water tower about about 400 feet away, to the east at RAF Stanbridge. This too has beeen taken down. If anyone has any further information on either tower, please leave a comment.

Whose Horton's hearings?

The fate of an abandoned circa 1912-24 water tower at the former Horton Asylum in Epsom remains in doubt after a meeting of the local council's planning committee on 6th December 2009. The committee voted to recommend rejection of the London and Quadrant Housing Trust's proposal to redevelop the tower as the lift shaft for a new-build thirteen story block of flats.

download the plans

The housing trust's proposal also provided four two-bedroom apartments next to the existing tower, which would be repaired and refurbished.

According to the application: The water tower is constructed of yellow gault brick. It measures a maximum of 7.3m by 9.9m in plan and is 39m high.

The proposal is to insert floors into the main and largest shaft in the building and in a former flue shaft, to add a stair/lift core to one side of the tower and erect a four storey extension in order to provide four two-bed maisonettes.

The two lowest maisonettes would have two storeys each on the lower four floors and the two above would occupy four storeys each of the remaining eight storeys.

The existing spiral stair, which is to be blocked off between dwellings, would provide the internal link between the various floors of a dwelling. The new staircase is to be the fire escape and also leads to the dwelling entrances. The lift would be a ‘fire fighting’ type.

The applicants state the proposed lift and staircase is required because of the need for access and escape in the case of a fire.

The four storey extension at the base of the tower is shown with a flat roof a maximum of 11.8m high.

Externally, the existing tower windows are adjusted and enlarged and additional windows are provided to each new residential floor. The rotten pitched roof it removed to form a roof terrace and a small flat roofed conservatory directly accessed from the existing spiral staircase. The existing brick work will be cleared and the tower will receive a rendered plinth for two storeys to disguise previous workshop abatements.

The new lift and stair shaft would have a steel structure clad in a self coloured rendered finish.

Six parking spaces would be provided with vehicular access from a road in the adjoining open market housing under construction.

Top image lifted from Jason Rogers Flickr page.



The reasons given for refusal are the effect on adjacent dwellings and the effect on the appearance of the existing tower. Horton water tower is not listed but it is supposed to be retained because of its character and townscape importance.

The actual decision to refuse or to permit will be taken in public by the councillors on the Planning Committee later.

But the councils actions have angered local residents who are urging the council either to demolish or preserve the water tower, if the application is turned down by the Planning Committee.

According to the Epsom Guardian: Kate Battrick (a prominent stylist) who lives behind the tower, said: “They have to either demolish it or put on a proper preservation order and take responsibility for it. They can’t leave it like this. While we welcome the findings in the report, it does not address that Epsom Council has failed the residents in Livingstone Park, showing a lack of care and responsibility.”

More info on Horton Asylum can be found on websites detailing the history of the cluster of asylums in Epsom and Ewell: History of the Epsom Hospitals and history of County Asylums.

According to the Liberal Democrat held council website:

When Horton Chapel and Horton Water Tower were saved from demolition during the building of the Livingstone Park estate in Epsom, local residents were consulted about its future. That first meeting was held five years ago!

For a variety of reasons, there has been little progress since then and most recently regeneration of both buildings appears to have succumbed to the economic downturn.



Meanwhile the nearby Grade II listed St. Ebbas water tower (left) with its integral chimney is being converted to become a power station for a similar asylum redevelopment where its planning persmission requires 20% of the site's energy to be from renewable sources. In this instance that could be from a woodchip burner.

You can follow this all too familiar sounding planning saga from here: Public Meeting on Horton Chapel and Water Tower

BWTAS would be grateful for updates from anyone informed on the situation.

Water tower tea cosy

Here at BWTAS we're somewhat mystified as to why, perhaps someone will explain, but we came across this neat film of crochet artist Robyn Love with the assistance of the ad agency  TAXI transforming a New York City water tower (one of those Rosenwach wooden ones) with a pencil tea-cosy as some sort of stunt for the Designers & Art Directors Awards in 2008. We love it, whatever it is.

L'Auberge Hotel in Punta del Este, Uruguay

"More than five decades old, the famous water tower of L'Auberge rises, majestic, amidst the tall pines, and is a silent witness of the evolution of the hotel, the tea room and all the Parque del Golf neighborhood..." so says the website of this first class hotel in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

When BWTAS saw these photos, the inspiration from the great houses and estates of Britain was obvious. This place is reminiscent of Surrey but with better beaches and weather and fewer frightfully, awfully, awfully types.

You can view some panoramic images from the top of the tower which is open to the public. There are rooms in the tower as well as suites and chalets in the grounds. Many tourist guides say that the afternoon tea at the hotel is a national institution. 

Even more interesting perhaps is the architect behind the tower who is recognised in his own country but not in the English speaking world. The water tower was designed in 1947 to be the focus of a resort development for the wealthy by Arturo J. Dubourg [1912- 2003], who must have been a swell guy, notching up over 300 major projects to his credit as well as being a tennis champion and a successful racing driver for Grey Rock, the name of one of his houses and a Peugeot car dealership. There are copious references to his work on the web in Spanish covering condominums, houses, hotels, offices and stores.

South American friends tell BWTAS that Uruguay is a bargain holiday destination for Argentinians and Brazilians so a visit to this tower may be within the reach of visitors from Great Britain. Another popular destination in Punta del Este is the hotel-sculpture Casapueblo. If you go there, please let us know.

A new member writes...

BWTAS are really pleased to hear from Alf in Norwich who has written to us "I have been enjoying your website for free for a couple of years so I enclose a cheque for £10 to salve my conscience and help with funds."


Alf: please consider yourself absolved and now a fully paid up member of BWTAS. One of the last few copies of The Water Towers of East Anglia is on its way to you in the SAE you helpfully provided.


Your generosity makes us think we are worthy of a Paypal donation button on this site. Then again such things bring their own issues. Perhaps that is something to be raised at a committee meeting. As we now have several members in Norwich, it's about time we held a meeting there.

House in the Clouds treading the boards this summer

BWTAS hears that the iconic water tower, Suffolk's very own House in the Clouds is to feature in the 63rd Aldeburgh Festival  running from June 11 to June 27, 2010.

A recreation of the 'house' part of the water tower cum folly will be combined with film projections to become an installation in Thorpeness as part of The Way to the Sea, an homage to Benjamin Britten and WH Auden's On this Island. The sets are being designed by architect and theatre designer Pippa Nissen who earlier designed the festival opera: Elephant and Castle.

The tower is also set to make an appearence to American audiences soon. BWTAS member Nat Bocking has recently supplied the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art images of the House in the Clouds and the Freston tower for its forthcoming exhibition Folly: The View from Nowhere comprising of hundreds of architectural follies from around the world. The exhibition is being curated by Los Angeles architects Escher Gunewardena and will run at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles from December 6, 2009 to February 29, 2010.

UPDATE 24/6/10

Here is the Guardian review of the work at the Aldeburgh Festival
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/24/the-way-to-the-sea-review

Hyperboloid tower along the Silk Road

BWTAS member Clare Johnson has passed along her correspondence with her acquaintance Mark Stevenson of Crouch End.

Hearing of Clare's interest in water towers, Mark sent these images of a hyperboloid steel lattice water tower he encountered in the ancient city of Bukhara in Uzbekistan.

Mark was on a month long trip along the ancient Silk Road timed to  coincide with the solar eclipse in Shanghai in July earlier this year.  As far as he knows, the water tower was built by the Russians in 1927.

Leave it to the indomitable Ferrers, the Pie Master, to do some digging and he will locate it at 39.777891ºN 64.408638ºE and discover that you can climb it.

According to Lonely Planet, for a few pence given to whichever local is guarding the gate that day, you can climb the rickety and rusting stairs and gain fantastic views of the city, especially the ancient fortified palace of the The Ark.


Digging further, Ferrers found an image from 1963 taken by traveller Galen Fry Singer which show pretty conclusively that the original tank has been removed and this tower was converted into a viewing platform. The later Islamic detailing of the window arches in the conversion are a nod to the history and culture of this ancient city.

What is fascinating is that this hyperboloid structure is a Russian invention and the first was designed by engineer V.G. Shukhov in 1896.

The world's first hyperboloid tower was another water tower and this is now in desperate need of preservation today. There is a foundation dedicated to the many works of this remarkable engineer.

1896 tower for All-Russia Exhibition at
Nizhniy Novgorod, capacity 114,000 gallons

Later moved to Polibino and preserved

It isn't the first time that the challenges of water storage have inspired huge breakthroughs in engineering, reinforced concrete being another.

And wrapping these two things up together nicely, in Trent Park, Cockfosters, England, we have a reinforced concrete hyperboloid water tower designed by Edmund Percey and Chief Engineer J M Milne for Severn Trent water.

The hyperboloid structure is probably best known for creating the shape of cooling towers in power stations. The amazing illusion of this geometry is that the members of these structures remain straight and do not curve, but at Cockfosters, twist 120 degrees around their axis.

There are many water towers, bridges and other structures using this technique. Put the term into google and see what else you will find!

I wonder if Winchells or Krispy Kreme doughnuts know of this amazing tower in Ciechanow, Poland. A toroid tank on a hyperboloid lattice. Try saying that with a mouthful of crackers!