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William Lindley the hero of street art in Bergedorf!

Let us just remind here that Bergedorf or Hamburg-Bergedorf is a part of the city of Hamburg, from April 1, 1938 included in the borders of Big Hamburg. The commissioning in 1842 of the railroad linking this small town with the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg began William Lindley's great European career.

The joint stock company for culture and history of Bergedorf-South (Kultur-und Geschichts-AG Bergedorf-Süd) was aware of the dubious beauty of distribution boxes supplying electricity to apartments and industrial facilities and decided to campaign for their artistic redesign.

At the end of 2017, these previously gray, inconspicuous or heavily soiled energy distributors were renovated by the Hamburg artist Vincent Schulze, who for several years has been specializing in urban art and creating high-quality wall graphics and decoration of the facades of German city buildings, murals and a serie of works full of illusion scenes. He uses a variety of colored sprays for these purposes.

The audience liked Schultze's graphics and the author was invited to the second stage of the project. In 2018, new historical themes were selected, referring to the history of the place. Along the Rector-Ritter-Straße, paintings were created showing the images of William Lindley, the architect of Hamburg Alexis de Chateauneuf, or other figures important to the city. An image of one Lindley-related object was also created - a wooden railway station of his design, which has survived to this day. 

Journalist Heidi vom Lande recalled these artistic objects in the context of the covid-19 epidemic. “Graffiti is legal in Bergedorf-Süd! Get out in the fresh air and admire the street art! " - she called on the inhabitants of the district to the recreational activity.

To see more click here: 

Zobacz: http://www.08schulzedesign.de/start.html

 https://develop.heidivomlande.de/2018/11/27/die-schoensten-graffiti-verteilerkaesten-in-bergedorf-sued-sprayer-durfte-erneut-ran/#more-20697342

Photograph of  W. Lindley's painting by Bernd Carstensen, https://www.flickr.com/photos/161366249@N02/49526820036/

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New find in Warsaw - two commemorative plaques of W.H. Lindley sewerage works in 1906

In October 2021, Marek Smółka, spokesman of Water Supply Company, informed the inhabitants of Warsaw about an interesting find. In the Praga collector chamber under Jagiellońska Street, at the intersection with ul. I. Kłopotowski, two commemorative plaques in Polish and Russian were found. The inscription on them, which is difficult to read due to the passage of time, reads: "The stone laid by the acting mayor of Warsaw, W. Litwiński, to commemorate the commencement of sewage works in the suburbs of Praga on October 20, 1906, according to the design and under the supervision of engineer W.H. Lindley ".

Two plaques, in Russian (left) and Polish

150 years of the Lindleys’ Kőbánya water reservoirs

The Ottoman Emipre ruled Hungarian lands 1541-1686. When the Turks were defeated by the Habsburgs, Hungariona cities Buda, Óbuda and Pest  became a part of the Habsburg dominion. In 1867, after signing the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was established. Hungary, in general, and Buda and Pest, in particular, benefited greatly from this union and enjoyed a rapid growth, economicand progress. Pest became the political, economic and trade hub in the area, and in time, it became the most populated area.

In 1866 the cholera outbreak in these cities made the City Council to decide to build a waterworks to supply water to Pest (the water supply of Buda was less critical).

The Municipal Commission visited several cities in Western Europe, where modern water and sewage systems were built. Among them Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main, because on the advice of the chief engineer of Pest, Pál Szumrak, the mayor Móric Szentkirályi, proposed in mid-December 1867, that the work related to water supply to Pest be entrusted to William Lindley, famous for his waterworks in German cities. After visiting the site, Lindley handed the project over to the city in early February of the following year. He suggested in the report that before sufficient amount of money is raised for a modern water plant, a temporary system of pumps and wells be set up in the shipyard site (Flottillenplatzon, now Kossuth Lajos Square) near the Danube, for the extraction of water naturally filtered by the river gravel. From here, a network of pipes was to be pumped to a part of the city and its inhabitants. Since the capacity of such an intake due to the thin layer of gravel was insufficient for the rapidly growing number of the city's inhabitants, he designed the construction of sand filters from the Danube waters and a more efficient pumping station, pipeline network as well as a high-level reservoir in a nearby quarry at such a height that would ensure adequate pressure in the network. William Lindley was assigned in 1868 to build the waterworks and reservoirs. according to his design.

After an audience with Emperor Francis I, the mayor of the city and Lindley obtained permission to use the shipyard area, current Kossuth-tér and  Parliament Building.  Constructions started in April and were finished in November 1968. 

Temporary water supply system in the Flottillenplatzon, now Kossuth Lajos Square, with water reservoir under construction, 1868

Two impressive underground water reservoirs were built between 1869 and 1871 in Ihász Street (Kőbánya, 10th district of Budapest) on the Óhegy hill. They had capacity of 10,800 m³ each, and the reservoirs were able to store 21,600 m³ water. Though at that time the water consumption of Pest was estimated at 1,850 m³ per day, Lindley planned the waterworks, pipeline and reservoirs for a daily capacity of  9,100 m³/day. The reservoirs were built by masons from Italy; the bricks were produced in Hungary.

Kőbánya water reservoir (present state)

In 1869 William was joined in Pest by his eldest son William Heerelein, who was then 16-years old. The same pattern of  construction of water reservoirs were used by him almost over 40 years later in Polish Lodz.

The previously separate towns of Buda, Óbuda, and Pest were officially unified in 1873 and given the new name Budapest. The reservoirs are still in use and can be visited once a year when they drained for maintenance.

Read more:

https://www.industrialheritagehungary.com/02-Industrial-Heritages/04-Utilities/kobanya-water-reservoir.html

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