Hydraulic Pumping Station Water Street Manchester

The Pump House in Bridge Street on the banks of the River Irwell opened as the People's History Museum in May 1994. Before that it was a hydraulic pumping station and is now the only surviving Edwardian pumping station in the city. It opened in 1909 and was the third and last station of the hydraulic pumping network in Manchester. The other two stations were situated on Whitworth Street and Pott Street. The station once supplied power to the mills and warehouses that dominated the city; it wound the Town Hall clock and even raised the curtain at the Opera House. In 1972 the station closed when hydraulic power was superseded by electricity. All that remains of the internal machinery is a pumping engine, moved to become an exhibit at Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry, at Castlefield. The engine, 15 feet (4.6 m) high and weighing 25 tons, has been restored and is in full working order.

Reference    Manchester Guardian 26 January 1906 Page 4 Column 7 (Contracts)
Reference    Builder 2 February 1907 Page
Reference    Building News 15 February 1907 page 260 - contracts Engine and Boiler Houses
Reference    Builder 13 April 1907 Page 454