# Isle of Dogs Pumping Station: London's Temple of Postmodern Architecture - Published: 2026-01-07 - Topic: Architecture Stories - Source: Architectural Icons Stories by Securex “Architecture is more than plumbing, just as eating is more than an excuse to make turds” John Outram If you look to your left as you come around the Thames on a clipper along the curve of the Isle of Dogs from central London, the fat skyscrapers of Canary Wharf congeal into an impressively featureless mound in the near distance, while in the foreground a teeming encrustation of apartment buildings in an array of mostly 1980s variations on brick vernacular, elbow each other out of the way to get glimpses of the river. Joyously popping out from the middle of this mountainous architectural compost heap, staring at you as you pass with the gaping intensity of a cyclopean eye, is what looks like the front of a jet engine that’s been lodged in the centre of an industrial shed’s roof, both of which have been dropped on a pair of partially submerged, super-giant brick columns. These are each topped by capitals that are so brightly coloured and fanciful, that if extracted, they could quite happily make for two very successful, gloriously exuberant carnival floats. Explore our full Isle of Dogs Pumping Station (Temple of Storms) collection featuring prints, mugs, apparel and more. And thus is how most Londoners have their first glimpse of John Outram’s defiantly singular Isle of Dogs Pumping Station from 1986-8. At a time when most of architecture was polarised in the popular imagination between the neo-traditionalists, who wanted to recast Britain in the image of an idealised, suspiciously monarchical-looking past, and the Hi-Tech architects who saw themselves as inheritors of another equally idealised past, but this time of great machinery, and pure engineering bravura, Outram’s staunchly complex little manifesto of a building seemed to speak of a much richer relationship both to the past, and to the present. Unlike the neo-traditionalists, Outram vocally and vigorously utilised the latest technology, engineering and mechanical services, intimately incorporating them into his design language. Unlike the Hi-Techs, he used it as a generative device around which he developed a rich, evocative language of ornament and architectural forms, rather than leaving it to speak only of the functional purposes it served. ^John Outram in the Pumping Station wearing one of our Temple of Storms embroidered dad hats Unlike the neo traditionalist’s enslavement to stories already told a thousand times over, and Hi-Tech’s refusal to say anything at all, Outram was a master of creating new narratives and stories and myths through his architecture, by designing his buildings as eloquent overall compositions, and by using material techniques he invented with the express purpose of making his designs ultra-expressive, or as he put it, to allow them to be always “saying without speaking”. His “Robot Order” (described by one arch-modernist as “sheer terrorism”) was a super-large column type wide enough to contain all the modern electronics and services required by buildings of t **Read the full article:** [https://architectural-icons.com/blogs/news/isle-of-dogs-pumping-station-londons-temple-of-postmodern-architecture](https://architectural-icons.com/blogs/news/isle-of-dogs-pumping-station-londons-temple-of-postmodern-architecture) ## Structured Data ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "name": "Isle of Dogs Pumping Station: London's Temple of Postmodern Architecture", "headline": "Isle of Dogs Pumping Station: London's Temple of Postmodern Architecture", "isAccessibleForFree": true, "inLanguage": "en", "author": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Securex", "url": "https://securex.be" }, "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Architectural Icons Stories", "parentOrganization": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Securex" } }, "about": "Architecture Stories", "description": "“Architecture is more than plumbing, just as eating is more than an excuse to make turds” John Outram If you look to your left as you come around the Thames on a clipper along the curve of the Isle of Dogs from central London, the fat skyscrapers of Canary Wharf congeal into an impressively featureless mound in the near distance, while in the foreground a teeming encrustation of apartment buildings in an array of mostly 1980s variations on brick vernacular, elbow each other out of the way to get glimpses of the river. Joyously popping out from the middle of this mountainous architectural compost heap, staring at you as you pass with the gaping intensity of a cyclopean eye, is what looks like the front of a jet engine that’s been lodged in the centre of an industrial shed’s roof, both of which have been dropped on a pair of partially submerged, super-giant brick columns. These are each topped by capitals that are so brightly coloured and fanciful, that if extracted, they could quite happily make for two very successful, gloriously exuberant carnival floats. Explore our full Isle of Dogs Pumping Station (Temple of Storms) collection featuring prints, mugs, apparel and more. And thus is how most Londoners have their first glimpse of John Outram’s defiantly singular Isle of Dogs Pumping Station from 1986-8. At a time when most of architecture was polarised in the popular imagination between the neo-traditionalists, who wanted to recast Britain in the image of an idealised, suspiciously monarchical-looking past, and the Hi-Tech architects who saw themselves as inheritors of another equally idealised past, but this time of great machinery, and pure engineering bravura, Outram’s staunchly complex little manifesto of a building seemed to speak of a much richer relationship both to the past, and to the present. Unlike the neo-traditionalists, Outram vocally and vigorously utilised the latest technology, engineering and mechanical services, intimately incorporating them into his design language. Unlike the Hi-Techs, he used it as a generative device around which he developed a rich, evocative language of ornament and architectural forms, rather than leaving it to speak only of the functional purposes it served. ^John Outram in the Pumping Station wearing one of our Temple of Storms embroidered dad hats Unlike the neo traditionalist’s enslavement to stories already told a thousand times over, and Hi-Tech’s refusal to say anything at all, Outram was a master of creating new narratives and stories and myths through his architecture, by designing his buildings as eloquent overall compositions, and by using material techniques he invented with the express purpose of making his designs ultra-expressive, or as he put it, to allow them to be always “saying without speaking”. His “Robot Order” (described by one arch-modernist as “sheer terrorism”) was a super-large column type wide enough to contain all the modern electronics and services required by buildings of t", "url": "https://architectural-icons.com/blogs/news/isle-of-dogs-pumping-station-londons-temple-of-postmodern-architecture", "datePublished": "2026-01-07", "dateModified": "2026-01-07" } ``` --- *[Back to Architecture Stories](architecture-stories.md?src=knowledge) · [All topics](knowledge.md?src=knowledge)* *Source: Architectural Icons Stories via [Aztrix](https://aztrix.io?src=knowledge)*