As London’s sewer system accepts into its gaping maw a huge autumnal deluge, it is worth sparing a thought for those who created it. The Metropolitan Board of Works was created in 1855 to improve the cities infrastructure ‘under the earth and above the earth’. A contemporary view of the Board was as ‘appointed physician to the metropolitan organism… (with) the duty of restoring it to health and promoting its future growth, of giving strength to its muscular, and vitality to its arterial system, roundness to its limbs, and beauty to its face.’ A year later, Joseph Bazalgette was apppointed Chief Engineer to the body. In 1858 London experienced the Big Stink.
During 1858, the summer was unusually hot. The Thames and many of its urban tributaries were overflowing with sewage; the warm weather encouraged bacteria to thrive and the resulting smell was so overwhelming that it affected the work of the House of Commons. The curtains of the house were soaked in chloride of lime. Members considered relocating upstream to Hampton Court. Plans were made to evacuate to Oxford and St Albans. In typical London fashion, heavy rain finally ended the heat and humidity of summer. However, a House of Commons select committee was appointed to report on the Stink and recommend how to end the problem.
Bazalgette designed an extensive underground sewerage system that diverted waste to the Thames Estuary, downstream of the main centre of population. Six main interceptory sewers, totalling almost 100 miles (160 km) in length, were constructed, some incorporating stretches of London’s submerged rivers. Continue reading
cosmopolitan scum 