With a population of eight million people, and 30 million international visitors every year, London has its share of water challenges. Over the years, Xylem products – including Flygt, Lowara, Leopold and Sanitaire – have helped London solve these challenges, from monitoring one of the world’s largest movable flood barriers to transporting water in one of the UK’s busiest financial districts. Read on for a behind-the-scenes tour of the waters of London.
Illustration/Nils-Petter Ekwall
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Leicester Square
Located within Leicester Square, the Warner Vue Cinema has a small Flygt pump station located very close to one of their cinema screens. If this pump station was to flood, the effluent would inevitably spill into the cinema. To ensure that this never occurs, they have a Flygt control panel with remote GSM communication installed. This sends out a signal alarm, alerting the correct people if there are early signs of flooding. |
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 The West End
The famous “West End” area of London is renowned for its variety and great number of theaters. The Adelphi- Theatre contains Lowara 30 kW chilled water pumps. |
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Hyde Park
The Serpentine is a recreational lake situated in Hyde Park. Flygt 3000 series pumps are utilized within the numerous fountains which are located around the lake. The Serpentine and its fountains attract a great number of tourists every year. |
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Heathrow airport
Heathrow airport is considered to be one of the busiest airports in the world with regards to passenger traffic. Flygt pumps and aerators support the airport’s sewage and storm water pumping, as well as ensuring that all runway water run-off and foul water is pumped away quickly and efficiently to keep the airport moving. Heathrow is also supported by BAA-approved Flygt pump control panels, to monitor and control the network of pumps. |
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 The BBC Television Centre
The BBC Television Centre is the headquarters of BBC Television. Officially opened in 1960, it remains one of the largest broadcast centers in the UK to this day. The headquarters are equipped with Lowara heating pumps fitted with Hydrovar variable speed drives and pressurization sets. |
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 Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace and its numerous surrounding buildings benefit from Flygt maintenance contracts which ensure pumps perform at their optimum level all year round. |
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 The Houses of Parliament
The Houses of Parliament is home to the UK Government including the two chambers of parliament: the “House of Lords” and the “House of Commons.” This famous landmark is equipped with Lowara vertical multistage pumps fitted with Hydrovar variable speed drives. |
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Hampton Water Treatment Works
Leopold rapid gravity media filtration underdrains play a major role in the filtration process at the UK’s largest water treatment works. This process allows Hampton WTW to produce some of the highest quality drinking water in the world. Leopold filtration equipment is also present at nearby Hornsey WTW and Chingford WTW. |
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 Chelsea FC Stadium
Flygt 2000 series pumps are in use here to remove excess water that runs off from the stadium roof. |
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 White water course
Flygt pumps deliver critical flow rates to championship slaloms to generate a canoeing experience as natural as possible. The monitoring and supervision (MAS) system monitors signals from the pumps sensors such as the temperature and oil. This system offers a higher level of pro-tection for the pumps enabling the course to avoid potential breakdowns and damage to the pumps. |
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 The London Underground
Approximately 310 Flygt pump controller units are strategically positioned at points in the London Underground network, remotely gathering critical fluid data in numerous tunnels, stations and escalator units. The information is relayed to Aquaview workstations around the Underground; the largest Aquaview installation in the UK. The data is used to determine when individual Flygt dewatering pumps need to be employed and at what rate in order to prevent water rising to unsafe levels that could lead to the network being shut down for safety reasons. |
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 Black water site
The newly built black water site will provide a supply of water to cater for the added strain that a large sports championship would add to the city of London. All wastewater and effluent produced by this site will be pumped on to Beckton STW where it will be treated, involving Sanitaire aeration diffusers. |
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 Beckton Sewage Treatment Works
Serving over 3.5 million people, Beckton Sewage Treatment Works sits on the north bank of the River Thames and was constructed in 1865. Sanitaire Silver Series membrane diffusers are situated within aeration lanes as part of the activated sludge plants, providing secondary biological treatment at the site. |
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 Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is one of the largest business districts in the UK with many of the countries tallest buildings situated here. There are a variety of Flygt pumps and telemetry outstations installed which cover the whole area. The network of Flygt pumps communicate with a large SCADA system, located at Canary Wharf’s own maintenance control centre. |
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 Thames Barrier
The Thames Barrier is one of the world’s largest movable flood barriers and its main purpose is to prevent London from being flooded during exceptionally high tides and storms. 12 Flygt pumps were installed within the barrier during its construction and are still in use today. D7000 telemetry units are installed for environmental monitoring and data capture. This enables the monitoring of water levels at different points of the river so that the barriers can be raised or lowered instantly to control upstream levels and protect the surrounding areas from flooding. |
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Sewage Treatment Works
Along with Beckton, other Thames Water sites such as Crossness, Longreach, Mogden and Riverside also incorporate Sanitaire aeration equipment, submersible mixers and Flygt pumps ranging from the 2000 dewatering series to the 3000 and 3001 series. |
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