Grosvenor Canal - Route

Route

Grosvenor Road, part of the London Embankment, runs close to the river, and the canal passes under it where it joins the Thames. On the north side of the road is the Lower Basin, which is tidal and is normally empty at low tide. The lock is immediately to the north of it, while above the lock was a wider section to the east, called the Upper Basin. In 1875 there was a timber yard to the west of the Upper Basin, behind which were the offices of the Chelsea Water Works. A saw mill and an iron works had been built between the timber yard and the canal by 1916, and a large building marked Corporation Depot occupied the west bank to the end of the truncated canal in 1951. By 1896, a sewage works had been built on the narrow strip of land between the basin and the railway tracks to the east, consisting of cooling ponds and a pumping station. This was the Western Pumping Station, completed by 1875, and the final part of the main drainage system for London. Four high-pressure condensing beam-engines, housed in a building 71 feet (22 m) tall, developing 360 hp (270 kW) raised sewage by 18 feet (5.5 m) from a low level sewer, to pump it to the Abbey Mills station at Barking. The station could pump 55 million gallons per day (250 Mld), and a backup non-condensing engine was provided in case of failure of any of the main engines.

Between the upper basin and Ebury Bridge, the railway hemmed in the east bank, while to the left there was a saw mill and a wider section with wharves. The saw mill had become a motor car depot and works by 1916, and the whole area was part of the Ebury Bridge housing estate in 1951. Between Ebury Bridge and Elizabeth Bridge, there were a series of wharves, labelled Victoria Wharf, Bangor Slate Wharf, Ebury Wharf, Commercial Wharf and Lime Wharf on a wide section of canal, after which it narrowed, and was flanked by a livery stables, Baltic Wharf, Eaton Wharf and Elizabeth Bridge Wharf. The buildings were all still there in 1896, but only Ebury, Lime and Baltic wharves were named. All of them had disappeared beneath the railway tracks by 1916. Beyond Elizabeth Bridge there was a short wide section, flanked by St George's Wharf in 1875 and a narrow section bordered by various types of works. The wharf was called Eaton Wharf in 1896, and the buildings were no longer named. Before Eccleston Bridge, the canal ended, its width reduced by the tracks swinging westwards to reach the western platforms of the station.