Canal And River Trust facility houses 97-year-old pumps that keep water levels topped up across the Isle Of Dogs and is offering tours
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“It’s the lid we use to seal off the bottom of the pump and prevent the Thames coming in at high tide,” said Brandon Hamilton, indicating a massive steel plate leaning against one of the walls inside the West India Docks Impounding Station.
“We use it because Brandon doesn’t like to go swimming when he’s not wearing his trunks.”
While admitting to a preference for taking his dips in Mexican cenotes, we’re not here to talk about Brandon’s aquatic adventures.
That’s because he’s one of a small team of people that plays a vital, mostly hidden role in the life of this part of east London.
Walking past the docks on the Isle Of Dogs and in Canary Wharf, it’s easy to forget that the waterways don’t simply take care of themselves – that these human-made lakes are anything other than a bucolic feature of Island life.
But all that water is constantly trying to escape.
It evaporates, it flows to freedom into the Thames when lock gates open and it seeps away over time.
As a mechanical and electrical technician at the Canal And River Trust, among many other tasks and challenges, Brandon and his colleagues work tirelessly to maintain the systems that prevent the water level dropping too far.
It’s an operation centred on just three machines housed in a low brick building on the western edge of the Isle Of Dogs between Westferry Road and Marsh Wall.
The premise is simple. Three Worthington pumps can draw water from the Thames at high tide and top up the docks to the required level.
The quantities are staggering. They are capable of filling an Olympic-size swimming pool in about nine minutes.
They’re also 97 years old. This is rugged infrastructure that was built to last, designed to serve the needs of thriving docks.
Today it supports everything floating in the waterways from Skuna’s hot tubs and St Peter’s Barge at West India Quay to the GoBoats in Canary Wharf, the houseboats in Blackwall Basin, the Docklands Scout Project in South Dock and the Docklands Sailing And Watersports Centre further down the Island.
the harmony of the pumps
“This,” said Brandon, indicating the interior of the West India Docks Impounding Station, “is what I call the heart of Docklands.
“When the pumps are running they make this humming sound – it’s harmonious, like a symphony.
“This place has a hold on me, it’s very close to my heart – I’ve spent a long time working on these machines.”
Having joined the trust after college, Brandon has spent eight years working for the charity, which looks after the Isle Of Dogs waterways and countless others nationwide.
He said: “Now, the impounding station is pretty much fully automated. But when I started in 2018 we were still operating the pumps manually.
“Because they need to be operated at high tide for around two hours, before automation, that would mean coming down to the station at all hours of the day and night – usually three times a week to maintain the water level.
“Several of us were trained to operate them and to do that job, but now it’s automated we don’t need to come down at 3am while everybody else is in bed.
“Now they can be operated remotely and we can even see updates and get alerts on our phones if there are any issues.
“That’s the beauty of mixing the old and new technology.
“Of course, we still need to do the maintenance and it’s wonderful to be able to work with these historical artefacts and to help keep them running – the pumps and the hydraulic gates that open and close to let water into the docks. I love it.”
opening to the public
Driven by electric motors, the pumps have survived a lot over the years including the blitz, floods and even damage to the station’s roof from Storm Eunice that meant it needed replacing.
At some point, the pumps themselves will also need to be renewed, with the trust investigating its options.
In the meantime, the inter-war systems will continue to pump water just as they have for most of the past 100 years.
Not normally open to the public, the impounding station is set to throw wide its doors on October 9 and 10, 2026, for a series of guided tours led by staff from the Canal And River Trust.
Visitors can expect to learn about the history of the facility, get close to its singular pumps and discover exactly how the whole set-up works.
Brandon, who works across all of the charity’s mechanical and electrical infrastructure on the Island, including its numerous bridges, said: “I love that I get to do these things – each day is different and I get to collaborate with an organisation that really values the water and the things that me and my colleagues do.
“I would tell any young person that looking after waterways and canals is a pretty good direction to go in.
“Being by the water is peaceful and calming, it’s just nice.
“Through my role I get the opportunity to support STEM students and to let young people know what my job is like.
“That’s definitely a blessing. It’s a career I really enjoy.
“It brings me real pride to work for a charity that’s so passionate about what it does.
“But it’s also the team, getting to work alongside each other to make sure everything’s working and repairing things when we need to.
“The trust is doing its utmost to bring people to our canals and rivers – individuals, our neighbours, communities and businesses – and there are real benefits to doing that.
“It takes a lot to maintain our waterways and there wouldn’t be so much beauty for people to discover if we didn’t do the work we do.
“We love it when people come and visit us to see the kinds of things we’re actually doing behind the scenes.”
key details: West India Docks Impounding Station
Guided tours of the West India Docks Impounding Station are set to take place on October 9 and 10, 2026, with 45-minute time slots from 10am to 3pm.
Tickets cost £16.76 for adults and £9.21 for children.
You can book tickets via this link
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