Mogden, Hounslow
The old name for the part of south Isleworth now dominated by a Thames Water sewage plant
The Crane Walk runs alongside the Duke of Northumberland’s River
Opened in 1936, the Mogden Wastewater Works is one of the largest such plants in south-east England, treating sewage from a population equivalent of 1.8 million, across a 60 square mile catchment area of north and west London. It has recently undergone a £40 million refit. The purified wastewater from the plant is piped to Isleworth Ait, where it is discharged into the Thames around high tide. Electricity has always been generated from the waste methane to power the treatment works themselves but in 1993 a combined heat and power plant was added. South Middlesex hospital, which closed in 1982, was formerly Mogden isolation hospital.
The surrounding locality is rarely called Mogden anymore, either because of the name’s association with sewage or because it was never a very attractive word in the first place. Ivybridge is the preferred identity both for residential and commercial developments. The council’s Ivybridge estate has some of the borough’s highest levels of deprivation, although low rise flats have recently been demolished – after lengthy delays. The main ethnic minorities are of Pakistani and black African heritage, and an increasing number of refugee families have been placed on the estate.
The Crane Walk runs through the middle of the Mogden works, beside the Duke of Northumberland’s River, which was diverted as part of the construction programme.
The ‘Mogden formula’ is a sewerage industry pricing structure that seeks to link charges to the volume and strength of trade effluent discharged.
