British Engineerium

British Engineerium
The former boiler house and engine rooms from the southeast
Location	The Droveway, West Blatchington, Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, United Kingdom BN3 7QA
Coordinates	50°50′39″N 0°10′33″W / 50.8442°N 0.1758°W / 50.8442; -0.1758Coordinates: 50°50′39″N 0°10′33″W / 50.8442°N 0.1758°W / 50.8442; -0.1758
Built	1866
Built for	Brighton Hove and Preston Constant Service Water Supply Company
Architectural style(s)	High Victorian Gothic
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official name: Boiler and Engine House at British Engineerium; Chimney 2 metres south of the Boiler and Engine House at British Engineerium
Designated	7 June 1971
Reference no.	1187600; 1292285
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name: Cooling Pond and Leat at British Engineerium; Former Coal Shed at British Engineerium; Walls enclosing British Engineerium
Designated	7 June 1971
Reference no.	1187601; 1210170; 1298616
Location within Brighton and Hove

The British Engineerium (originally named Goldstone Pumping Station, then Brighton and Hove Engineerium, before taking its present name in 1981) is an engineering and steam power museum in the West Blatchington area of Hove, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove, located just north of the Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium. It is housed in a 19th-century High Victorian Gothic complex of brick buildings which were erected in 1866 as a pumping station for the local water supply company. The Goldstone Pumping Station supplied water to the local area for more than a century before it was converted to its present use.

At its greatest extent, between 1884 and 1952, the complex consisted of two boiler houses with condensing engines, a chimney, coal cellars, workshop, cooling pond, leat and underground reservoir. Situated on top of a naturally fissured chalk hollow, it provided vast quantities of water to the rapidly growing towns of Hove and its larger neighbour, the fashionable seaside resort of Brighton, for more than a century. As new sources of water were found elsewhere and more modern equipment installed to exploit them, the pumping station's importance declined, and by 1971 the Brighton Water Department had closed it and threatened the complex with demolition. An industrial archaeologist offered to restore the buildings and machinery in return for a lease from the Brighton Water Corporation, and a charitable trust was formed to enable this. Expertise developed by the Engineerium's employees and volunteers was exploited across the world: they founded museums, undertook restoration projects and trained young people in engineering heritage conservation. Another enthusiast subsequently bought the complex, and as of 2017 it is closed to the public while more restoration and extension work takes place.

The High Victorian Gothic buildings are a landmark in Hove, and are a good example of the 19th-century ethos that "utility definitely does not equal dullness" in industrial buildings. Polychrome brickwork, moulded dressings and facings, decorative gables and elaborate windows characterise all the structures – even the 95-foot (29 m) chimney, which stands apart from the main buildings like a campanile. English Heritage has listed the complex for its architectural and historical importance, giving its structures five separate listings: the former boiler house and the chimney are both listed at Grade II* – the second-highest designation – and the former coal shed, the cooling pond and leat and the tall flint and brick wall surrounding the site each have the lower Grade II status.