Lyceyskiy Lane, 7, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 196601
The building is executed in eclectic forms with the use of elements of brick style and Gothic. In plan, the building has the shape of an elongated rectangle, with a projection of the stairwell adjoining the central 6-story tower. The facades were treated with plaster rustication at the bottom, facing brick framed by plaster pilasters and moldings on the upper floors of the towers, elegant cornices with stylized arcaded belts, dentils, and small towers. The accents of the three-axial end facades with large windows were the shaped gables. The corners of the volumes were decorated with niches with columns. The picturesque effect of the building is given by the combination of red brick and plaster. Metal decor was used in the design of the parapet and applied details with shaped patterns on the corners of the volume.
In the 1880s, there arose a need for centralized supply of drinking water and electricity to the town of Tsarskoye Selo.
Yielding in capacity to the water tower structures of St. Petersburg, the Singing Tower stood out advantageously among similar buildings in the suburban zone. It had 6 tiers with a height of 14 sazhen (approx. 30 meters), whereas, for example, the five-tier Gatchina tower was 11 sazhen high, and the four-tier Peterhof tower was even lower — 9.5 sazhen. Unlike other water towers, the Singing Tower was built to supply the town not only with water but also with electricity, thus combining the functions of a water tower and an electric station. For this purpose, additional operational and storage rooms were arranged, and the necessary equipment was installed — dynamo machines powered by the same steam engines that drove the pumps.
“Builder’s Week” wrote in 1887: “Currently, intensive work is underway in Tsarskoye Selo to arrange the city water supply. All streets of the town without exception will be equipped with water pipes, so that every house and every dacha will have the opportunity to have excellent Taitsky water. Along all the streets of the town, every 50 sazhen and at every intersection, combined fire and irrigation hydrants will be installed, which, on the one hand, will fully protect Tsarskoye Selo from the possibility of large fires, and on the other — will provide the opportunity for luxurious street watering, which will finally free its residents from that terrible dust that has always been a weak point of suburban life in Tsarskoye Selo. All efforts to arrange a complete network of water pipes are carried out by the wholesale contractor, engineer-technologist M. I. Altukhov.”
The water supply was to serve simultaneously two water towers: the Singing Tower on one side of the park, and the Orlov Tower on the other side near the Orlov gates by the road to Gatchina. The Singing Tower building is located on a terrain slope. It is oriented towards the former Singing (Lyceum) Lane, from which it took its name. The architectural design is executed in eclectic forms with the use of “brick style” and Gothic elements. The lower tier of the building is plastered, and the large surfaces of the hexagonal tower at the level of the upper three floors are finished with facing red brick framed by plaster.
The Singing Tower was erected in 1887, designed by architect Alexander Fomich Vidov, with rooms for mechanisms and water reservoirs. The tower’s name is not related to singing or music; it comes from the old address of the tower — Singing Lane, which was later renamed Lyceum Lane.
The Orlov Tower was a simplified repetition of the Singing Tower, serving as a water tower structure intended to supply water to the Tsarskoye Selo-Sofia district. The buildings look very similar, identical in dimensions, and their decorative trim is alike. Both towers were equipped with similar sets of water pumping and lifting equipment, including primarily cast-iron pipes of various diameters, steam boilers, pumps, and water storage reservoirs. Both towers, as water tower structures, operated as communicating vessels.
Water was supplied to them from the Orlov springs, located 15 km from the town. Initially, it flowed by gravity through two 24-inch cast-iron pipes into a small settling basin. Then, through one cast-iron pipe, it flowed into the well of the suburban water lifting building, and for almost 14 km, water, pumped by pumps, reached the Orlov and Singing towers, which were interconnected. Tower pumps lifted it into reservoirs at a height of over 25 meters, from where it was distributed through the city water supply network.
The tower reservoirs were filled with water using two steam pumps with a capacity of 10,000 buckets per hour. Initially, water was pumped from the Kitchen Pond in the Alexander Park.
The Singing Tower building was also intended for the arrangement of an electric station, initially serving the palace buildings and the town. The beginning of city electric lighting dates back to the same 1887 when the tower was connected to the city water supply. The steam drives of the pumps pumping water into the tower reservoirs simultaneously powered electric generators. The first alternating current generators from the firm “Ganz & Co.” were installed by engineer Grinevich; the electric lighting system was implemented by engineer-technologist of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Administration Pashkov.
In the year when the Tsarskoye Selo direct current power station was built based on the Singing water tower, another station was built in Odessa, but already of high-voltage alternating current. In the late 19th century, the construction of power stations began to grow rapidly. By November 1899, there were 10 central and 284 private power stations in St. Petersburg alone.
By 1887, Tsarskoye Selo became the first city in Europe whose streets were fully illuminated by electricity. Streets, palaces, many public buildings were lit, and electricity was also supplied to private houses, although each lamp was under the control of the electric service. Lighting a good apartment cost the owner about 100 rubles per year. By 1896, the capacity of the power station located next to the Singing Tower was already insufficient. Ionov even issued a circular to all employees occupying government premises, instructing them to save electricity by reducing the number of lit lamps in the evenings.
On the first floor, under the glass floor and in the lobby itself, cast-iron pipes have been preserved, judging by the “engraving,” from those very times.
Over time, the power station switched from coal to oil; then, at the beginning of the 20th century, it transitioned from the main power supplier of Tsarskoye Selo to a reserve status, while retaining its specialized “water” function. This continued until the 1950s, after which its “career” took sharp turns: first toward the office of the electric grid company, then architectural and construction workshops, and then it was abandoned for a long time.
In 2009, the Gutsait Group holding began restoration work as part of a project to create a restaurant complex. Restaurants occupy the first through third floors. The fourth, fifth, and sixth floors are apartments. On the seventh floor, there is a bar. At the very top of the Tower, there is an observation deck. From here, you can see the Catherine Palace in all its glory, part of the park, the Catherine Cathedral, and the roofs of Pushkin.
Moving through the floors of the Singing Tower, you will feel that it preserves a special atmosphere. Even now, from the outside, the Tower looks as the architect Alexander Vidov once envisioned it.
Some of the preserved historical water tower structures can be seen in the lobby through the glass floor. The interior spaces have been adapted for modern use.
Sources:
https://www.bashnya-pushkin.ru/
https://www.citywalls.ru/house18478.html
https://basilius3.livejournal.com/52657.html
