IT WAS the last chance to see the Victorian sewage works at Crossness before a major revamp, and more than 1,000 people could not resist the temptation.

The Crossness Engines Industrial Museum in Belvedere Road, Abbey Wood, held its last open day before a £3m project to transform the museum with a new exhibition space, visitor facilities and a new access road, begins.

Visitors not only had the chance to marvel at the interior of the beam engine house with its four giant engines and restored wrough ironwork, but also to see the detailed plans for the future.

One of the giant engines, restored by volunteers from the Crossness Engines Trust, was steamed up and there were plenty of experts on hand to answer visitors’ questions.

Already this year all of the buildings on the site, built in the 1860s to resolve London’s sewage crisis, have been re-roofed as part of the revamp.

It is hoped the project which is being funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage and others, will be complete by next spring.