For UK members and those visiting the UK

[SouthernChap]

This place might be worth a visit:

(Ignore the "OMG...YOU CANT COME HERE" message on the front page, there are open days when you can book a visit; there's a calendar of events you can look at to see the next three months of open days and rather excitingly, what they call "Steaming Days" when they run the engines)

Home | Crossness Engines Trust

Crossness Engines Trust Pumping Station Joseph Bazalgette Sewer Drainage Victorian Cathedral Steam Engine James Watt Beam

crossness.org.uk

My better, wiser half and I are going to visit, either this month or next month. We'll then pop up to Covent Garden for lunch to stuff ourselves at our favourite Italian restaurant (Ave Maria).

 

[Eddyde]

Ah, I was in London last year, wish I knew about this. Next time for sure...

 

[SouthernChap]

If you're interested in the history of sanitation and drains and water supply, there does seem to be quite a few sites you can visit in London all of a sudden. Probably something to do with the big cross-london sewerage/drain renewal project (someone referred to it as the 'pooper-highway' IIRC).

The other big historical deal for the last few years has been stuff about the London Underground.

There are some sites (like abandoned underground stations), I think that are by appointment only, so if you were interested in them (and what kind of person isn't interested in an abandoned underground transport facility), you might have to get a bit creative with your claims about who you are!

There are some quite obscure but interesting sites that are open to the public though and when you next pop over the pond give me a shout and I'll ask my better half if she can remind me what she found (she's the London history buff between the two of us).