<p>The Tower at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum was built in 1867 to the design of Alexander Fraser, engineer to the Grand Junction Waterworks Company.  It is in the Italianate style, probably based on a campanile -- a detached bell tower built alongside an Italian church. The design is very similar to an earlier tower (since demolished) at the company's Campden Hill works, although the latter had an open top as it was also a chimney. 
</p><p>The Tower was not a chimney, but a standpipe; it houses massive vertical cast iron pipes through which water was pumped before it left the Waterworks. The standpipe acted as a buffer between water under the pulsating pressure produced by the massive steam engines, and the constant pressure required in the mains.
</p><p>The Tower houses five massive cast iron pipes, which together make up the standpipe. The early non-rotative pumping engines did not produce a constant pressure of water, but rather a series of  pulses, coinciding with the power strokes of the engine.  The tower contained two systems of large diameter vertical pipes through which water was pumped before passing to the mains.  The pipes acted as a "buffer state" between water under the pulsating pressure of the engines, and the constant pressure required in the mains.  It also served to protect against sudden loss of load in the event, for example, of a burst water main; such an event could lead to catastrophic damage to the engine.
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The current standpipe is actually the third and the only one to have been enclosed with brick, a measure designed to protect the massive cast iron pipes within from frost damage. The slits in the brickwork are believed to have been included to allow small fires to be lit at the base to gently warm the pipes in severe weather.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/54238124@N00">Jim Linwood</a>
CC BY 2.0
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/54238124@N00/2223245038/">Kew Bridge Steam Museum Tower, Brentford, London.</a>