THE CASTLE, GREEN LANES

Middlesex

Obviously not a genuine castle a certain degree of thought has gone into this Victorian replica. It was built around 1856 as a pumping station to take water from the New River (which then really was new) into North East London to counter a cholera epidemic. The New River had been built a few years previous by Sir Hugh Myddleton bringing water in from Hertfordshire and ending near Sadlers Wells.

The castle was built to designs by William Chadwell Mylne, supposedly using Stirling Castle as an inspiration (although it is difficult to spot how). Although fanciful Mylne’s design is also eminently practical. It is on a raised "motte" which helps with the pumping action, the towers from the keep disguise chimneys and a water tank and the buttresses which flank the "keep" contained the fly-wheels for the six massive steam engines which the building housed.

It lay derelict for many years after it stopped being used as a water pumping station until finally in 1995 it was bought by Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners who have kitted it out as an indoor climbing centre, a function it ably continues to this day.

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2018