The mayor who gave Warsaw clean water
For most of the 19th century Warsaw drank from shallow wells, and in a city without sewers that meant recurring epidemics. The change came under Sokrates Starynkiewicz, a Russian general who ran the city for close to two decades and left behind a water supply, a sewer network and a plan for extending both.
The design was commissioned from William Lindley, an English engineer experienced in building waterworks across Europe. His son William Heerlein Lindley supervised the work on site and went on to spend much of his career in Warsaw, which later named a street in Ochota after him. Construction ran from 1883 to 1886, paid for largely through municipal bonds.
On 3 July 1886 the first filtered water reached Warsaw taps. The plant has not stopped since — through two world wars, several changes of political system, and many times the population it was built for.
What is behind the brick wall
The site covers roughly 36 hectares in the block bounded by Koszykowa, Krzywickiego, Filtrowa and Raszyńska streets — one of the largest enclosed plots in central Warsaw, ringed by a brick wall over which passers-by see mostly treetops and chimneys.
Its core is the slow sand filters: six groups, 36 beds in all, covering more than eight hectares. The principle cannot be hurried — water percolates through a layer of sand, and the actual cleaning is done by the living biological film that grows on its surface. Around them are settling basins, brick-vaulted clean water reservoirs and pump halls.
The water tower, built in 1885–1886, maintained pressure in the network until it was taken out of service in 1924. Everything is built in brick, granite and sandstone, and the architecture is strictly utilitarian: industrial proportions, minimal detail, form following the process. Mature tree-lined avenues run through the grounds, and two trees are protected as natural monuments.
A hundred and forty years of upgrades
The plant did not stay frozen in 1886. A rapid sand filter station was added in 1929–1933 under a Canadian licence, and chlorination was introduced in 1931. Bombing in September 1939 damaged many of the structures and much of the filtering equipment was lost; rebuilding took several years, and the works restarted in July 1949.
The most recent major investment is the ozonation and activated carbon stage of 2008–2010, named Socrates after Starynkiewicz. Thanks to it the Victorian waterworks meets present-day standards, and water now travels a considerably longer path through the site than it did in the Lindleys' day.
Why it is a Historic Monument
Protection came in stages, with register entries in 1973 and 2008. The highest form of protection followed on 18 January 2012, when a regulation of the President of Poland declared the complex a Historic Monument under the name "Warsaw — the William Lindley Filter Station complex".
Three things counted in the case for it: the engineering value of a 19th-century system, its importance in the history of the city, and the fact that it continues to serve its original purpose. The protected boundary follows the brick perimeter wall along the four surrounding streets.
That combination is unusual. Most industrial heritage in Poland consists of plants taken out of service and converted into visitor routes. Here you look at a working facility, and one a large part of the city's water still depends on.
Visiting and getting there
- Working site — this is an operating waterworks, so there is no walk-in access; entry is possible with booked groups and on dates announced by the operator.
- Water museum — a museum of Warsaw's water and sewers sits within the grounds; check the operator's current notices for access.
- From the street — the wall, gates and brick buildings are clearly visible from Koszykowa and Filtrowa, and the walk around the perimeter gives a good sense of the scale.
- By metro — Politechnika station on line M1, then about fifteen minutes west along Koszykowa.
- By tram — routes through Starynkiewicz square and along Raszyńska stop on both sides of the site.
- Nearby — Mokotów Field to the east, the interwar apartment blocks of Filtrowa street all around, and the Warsaw University of Technology towards the centre.
How to get there and practical info
- Location
- Warsaw, Ochota district, Koszykowa 81; the site fills the block between Koszykowa, Krzywickiego, Filtrowa and Raszyńska
- Built
- 1883–1886, designed by William Lindley, construction supervised by William Heerlein Lindley
- First water
- 3 July 1886; in continuous operation ever since
- Size
- about 36 hectares; 36 slow sand filter beds in six groups
- Protection
- Historic Monument of Poland since 18 January 2012; heritage register entries in 1973 and 2008
- Please note
- an operating waterworks — visits only with booked groups on announced dates
- Nearby
- Mokotów Field, Filtrowa street, Starynkiewicz square
- Current hours and tickets
- visiting dates and access to the water museum are announced by the site operator, the Warsaw waterworks company
When to go
The old avenues inside the wall come into leaf before the street trees, sheltered from the wind by the brickwork.
Most visiting dates fall in the warm months, when the walkways between the filter beds are dry.
A good time for the walk around the perimeter: with the leaves down, the brick buildings that hide in greenery all summer come into view.
The slow filters keep working under ice, though tours are often suspended; this is when the water tower shows best from the street.
Other sights in Warszawa
Straight-line distances from „Warsaw Water Filters" — calculated from real coordinates. By road it is often further.
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