 Section 73 of London Labour and the London Poor, volume 2 by Henry Mayhew. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Gillian Henry. Of the London Street Drain We have as yet dealt only with the means of removing the liquid refuse from the houses of the metropolis. This, as was pointed out at the commencement of the present subject, consists principally of the 19,000 million gallons of water that are annually supplied to the London residences by mechanical means. But there still remain the 5,000 million gallons of surface or rainwater to be carried off from the 1,760 miles of streets and the roofs and yards of the 300,000 houses which now form the British Metropolis. If this immense volume of liquid were not immediately removed from our thoroughfares as fast as it fell, many of our streets would not only be transformed into canals at certain periods of the year, but perhaps at all times, except during drought, they would be, if not impassable, at least unpleasant and unhealthy from the puddles or small pools of stagnant water that would be continually rotting them. Where such the case, the roads and streets that we now pride ourselves so highly upon would have their foundations soddened. If the surface of a road be not kept clean so as to admit of its becoming dry between showers of rain, said Lord Congleton, the great road authority, it will be rapidly worn away. Indeed, the immediate removal of rainwater so as to prevent its percolating through the surface of the road and thereby impairing the foundation appears to be one of the main essentials of road making. The means of removing this surface water, especially from the streets of a city where the rain falls at least every other day throughout the year and reaches an aggregate depth of 24 feet in the course of the 12 month is a matter of considerable moment. In Paris, and indeed almost all of the French towns, a channel is formed in the middle of each thoroughfare and down this the water from the streets and houses is continually coursing to the imminent peril of all pedestrians for the wheels of every vehicle distribute as it goes a muddy shower on either side of the way. We, however, have not only removed the channels from the middle to the sides of our streets but instituted a distinct system of drainage for the convenience of the wet refuse of our houses to the sewers so that there are no longer accepting in a very small portion of the suburbs open sewers meandering through our highways. The consequence is the surface water being carried off from our thoroughfares almost as fast as it falls. Our streets are generally dry and clean. That there are exceptions to this rule which are a glaring disgrace to us. It must be candidly admitted but we must at the same time allow when we think of the vast extent of the roadways of the metropolis 1,760 miles, nearly one half the radius of the earth itself the deluge of water that annually descends upon every inch of the ground which we call London 38,000 million gallons a quantity which is almost sufficient for the formation of an American lake and the vast amount of traffic over the greater part of the capital the 13,000 vehicles that daily cross London Bridge the 11,000 convencies that traverse Cheepside in the course of 12 hours the 7,700 that go through Temple Bar and the 6,900 that ascend and descend Hoburn Hill between 9 in the morning and 9 at night the 1,500 omnibuses and the 3,000 cabriolets that are continually hurrying from one part of the town to another and the 10,000 private carriage, job and cart horses that incessantly perviate the metropolis when we reflect I say on this vast amount of traffic this deluge of rain and the wilderness of streets it cannot but be allowed that the cleansing and draining of the London thoroughfares is most admirably conducted the mode of street drainage is by means of what is called a gully hole and a gully drain note gully here is a corruption of the word gullet or throat the Norman is gull Latin gula and the French goulé from this the word gully appears to be directly derived a gully drain is literally a gullet drain that is a drain serving the purposes of a gullet or channel for liquids and a gully hole the mouth orifice or opening to the gullet or gully drain end note the gully hole is the opening from the surface of the street and is seen generally on each side of the way into which all the fluid refuse of the public thoroughfares runs on its course to the sewer the gully drain is a drain generally of earthenware piping curving from the side of the street to an opening in the top or side of the sewer and is the means of communication between the sewer and the gully hole the gully hole is indicated by an iron grate being fitted into the surface of the side of a footpath where the road slopes gradually from its centre to the edge of the footpath and down this grate the water runs into the channel contrived for it in the construction of the streets these gully grates the observant pedestrian if there be a man in this hive of London without professional attraction to the matter regards for a few minutes the peculiarities of the street apart from the houses which he is traversing an observant pedestrian I say would be struck at the constantly recurring grates in a given space in some streets and their paucity in others in Drury Lane there is no gully grate as you walk down from Hoburn to where Drury Lane becomes which street whilst in some streets not a tenth of the length of Drury Lane there may be 3, 4, 5 or 6 grates the reason is this there is no sewer running down Drury Lane a contiguous sewer however runs down Great Wild Street draining where there are drains the hundred courts and nooks of the poor between Drury Lane and Lincoln's infields as well as the more open places leading down towards the proximity of Temple Bar this Great Wild Street sewer moreover in its course to Fleet Bridge is made available for the drainage very grievously deficient according to some of the reports of the Board of Health of Claire Market grates would of course be required in such a place as Drury Lane only the street is thought to be sufficiently on the descent to convey the surface water to the grate in which street the parts in which the gully grates will be found the most numerous are where the main streets are most intersected by other main streets or by smaller off streets and indeed wherever the streets of whatever size continually intersect each other as they do off nearly all the Great Street thoroughfares in the city although the sewers may not be according to the plan of the streets the gully grates must nevertheless be found at the street intersections whether the nearest point to the sewer or not or else the water would be quickly carried off and would form a nuisance I am informed on good authority both as regards the city and metropolitan commissions that the average distance of the gully grates is 30 yards one from another including both sides of the way their number does not depend upon population but simply on the local characteristics of the highways for of course the rain falls into all the streets in proportion to their size whether populous or half empty localities as however the more distant roads have not such an approximation of grates and the law which requires their formation is by no means and perhaps without unnecessary interference cannot be very definite I am informed that it may fairly be represented that of the 1,760 miles of London public ways more than two thirds or remarked one informant say 1,200 miles are grated on each side of the street or road at distances of 60 yards this would give 59 gully holes in every one of the 1,200 miles of street said to be so supplied hence the total number throughout the metropolis will be 70,800 the gully drain which is the street drain always presents now a sloping curve describing more or less part of a circle this drain starts so to speak from the side of the street while it's course to the sewer in order to economize space is made by any most appropriate curve to include the reception of as great a quantity of wet street refuse as possible for if the gully drains were formed in a direct or even a not very indirect line from the street sides to the sewers they would not only be more costly, more numerous but would in fact as I was told choke the underground of London for now the subterranean capital is so complicated with gas, water and drain pipes that such a system as will allow room for each is indispensable the new system is moreover more economical in the city the gully drains are nearly all of 9 inch diameter in tubular pipage in the metropolitan jurisdiction they are the same but not to the same extent some being only 6 inches 50 or even 30 years ago the old street channels for gully drainage were costly constructions for they were made so as to suit sewers which were cleansed by the street being taken up and the offensive deposit thick and even injurated as it often was in those days drawn to the surface some few were 3 and even 4 feet square some 2 feet 6 inches wide and 3 or 4 feet high all of brick I'm assured that of the extent or cost of these old contrivances no accounts have been preserved but that they were more than twice as costly as the present method in all the reports I have seen metropolitan or city the statements of the flusher men being to the same purport there are complaints as to the uses to which the gully holes are put in many parts every kind of refuse admissible through the bars of the grate being stealthily emptied down them the paviers if they have an opportunity sweep their surplus grout into the gullies and so do the scavengers with their refuse occasionally though this is generally done in the less frequented parts to get rid of the slop which is valueless in a report published in 1851 Mr. Haywood points out the prevalence of the practice of using the gully gratings as dustbins a sewer under Billingsgate accumulated in a few months many cartloads composed almost wholly of fish shells and 114 cartloads of fish shells, cinders and rubbish were removed from the sewers in the vicinity of Middlesex Street, Petticoat Lane these had accumulated in about 12 months reconstructing the gullies, he says, so as to intercept improper substances which has been recently done at Billingsgate might prevent this material reaching the sewers but it would still have to be removed from the gullies and would thus still cause perpetual expense indeed I feel convinced that nothing but making public example by convicting and punishing some offenders under Clause 69 of the City of London Sewers Act will stop the practice so universal in the poorer localities of using the gullies as dustbins the gully holes are now trapped with very few exceptions, one report states while another report intimates that gully trapping has no exception at all the trap is resorted to so that the effluvium from a gully drain may not infect the air of the public ways but among engineers and medical sanitary inquirers there is much difference of opinion as to whether the system of trapping is desirable or not the general opinion seems to be however that all gullies should be trapped of the city gully traps Mr Haywood in a report for the year 1851 says as regards the period of their introduction about 17 years ago you are then surveyor Mr Kelsey applied the first traps to sewer gullies and from that date to the present the trapping of gullies has been adopted as a principle and the City of London is still I believe the only metropolitan area in which the gullies are all trapped the traps first constructed have since been, as all first inventions or adaptations ever have or will be improved upon and are rapidly being displaced by those of more improved construction now of the incompatible conditions required of gully traps of the difficulty of obtaining such mechanical appliances so effective and perfect as can theoretically be devised but yet of the extreme desirability of obtaining them as perfect as modern science could produce your honourable court has at least for as long as I have had the honour of holding office under you been fully alive to no prejudice has opposed impediment to the introduction of novelties your court has been always open to inventors and at the present time there are 16 different traps or modes of trapping gullies under trial within your jurisdiction nor has the provision of the means of excluding effluvium from the atmosphere been your only care but the cleanliness of the sewers and the prevention of accumulation of decomposing refuse both by regulated cleansings and by constructing the sewage upon the most improved principles have also been your aim and that of your officers and I do not hesitate to assert that the offensiveness of the escape from the gullies has been off late years much diminished by the care bestowed upon the condition of the sewers 374 gullies have been re-trapped in the city upon improved principles during the last year end quote the gully traps are on the principle of self-acting valves but it is stated in several reports that these valves often remain permanently open partly from the street refuse especially if mixed with the debris from new or removed buildings not being sufficiently liquefied to pass through them and partly from the hinges getting rusted and so becoming fixed off the length of the London sewers and drains there is no official account precisely defining the length of the London sewage but the information acquired on the subject leaves no doubt as to the accuracy of the following facts about 900 miles of sewers of the metropolis may be said to have been surveyed and it is known that from 100 to 150 miles more constitute a portion of the metropolitan sewage this too independently of that of the city which is 50 miles altogether I'm assured that the sewers of the urban part of London included within the 58 square miles before mentioned measure 1100 miles the classes of sewers comprised in this long extent are pretty equally apportioned each a third or 366 miles of the first second and third classes respectively of this extent about 200 miles are still in the year 1852 open sewers to say nothing of the great open sewer the Thames the open sewers are found principally in the Surrey districts in Brixton, Luysham, Tooting and places at the like distance from the more central parts of the commissioners jurisdiction these open sewers however are disappearing and it is intended that in time no such places shall exist as it is some miles of them are enclosed yearly the open sewers in what may be considered more of the heart of the metropolis are a portion of the fleet ditch in Clarkinwell and places in Lambeth and Bermondsey or about 20 miles in the interior to 180 miles in the exterior portion of the capital these are national disgraces the 1100 miles above mentioned however include only the sewers comprising neither the house nor gully drains according to the present laws all newly built houses must be drained into the sewers and in 1850 there were 5000 applications from the western districts alone to the commissioners for the promotion of the drainage of that number of old and new houses into the sewers the old houses having been previously drained into cesspools I am assured on good authority that fully one half of the houses in the metropolis are at the present time drained into the sewers in one street about a century old containing in the portion surveyed for an official purpose on the two sides of the way 76 houses the number was found to be equally divided half the drainage being into sewers and half into cesspools the number of houses in the metropolis proper of 115 square miles area is 307,722 the majority as far as is officially known are now drained into the public sewers or into private or branch sewers communicating with the larger public receptacles so that allowing 200,000 houses to be included in the 58 square miles of the urban sewerage and admitting that some wretched dwelling places are not drained at all it is reasonable to assume that at least 100,000 houses within this area are drained into the sewers the average length of the house drains is, I learn from the best sources, 50 feet per house the builder of a new house is now required by law to drain it at the proprietor's cost 100 feet if necessary to a sewer in some instances in detached houses where the owners object to the cesspool system a house drain has been carried 230 feet to a sewer and sometimes even farther but in narrow or moderately wide streets from 18 to 26 feet across and in alleys and narrow places in case there is sewerage the house drains may be but from 12 to 20 feet both these lengths of drainage are exceptions and there is no question that the average length may be put at 50 feet in some squares for example the sewer runs along the centre so that the house drains here are in excess of the 50 feet average the length of the house drainage of the more central part of London assuming 100,000 houses to be drained into the sewers and each of such drains to be on the average 50 feet long is then 5 million feet or about 2,840 miles but there are still the street or gully drains for the surface water to be estimated in the Hoburn and Finsbury division alone the length of the main covered sewers is said to be 83 miles the length of smaller sewers to carry off the surface water from the streets 16 miles the length of drains leading from houses to the main sewers 264 now if there be 16 miles of gully drains to 83 miles of main covered sewers and the same proportion hold good throughout the 58 square miles over which the sewers extend it follows that there would be about 200 miles of gully drains to the gross 1,100 miles of sewers but this is only an approximate result the length and character of the gully drains I find to vary very considerably if the streets where the gully grates are found have no sewer in a line with the thoroughfare still the water must be drained off and conveyed to the nearest sewer of any class large or small and consequently at much greater length than if there were a sewer running down the street neither is the number of the gully holes any sure criterion of the measurement of the gully drains for where the intersections are and consequently the gully holes frequent a number sometimes amounting to 10 are made to empty their contents into the same gully drain neither do the returns of yearly expenditure presented to Parliament by the Metropolitan Court of Sewers supply information but even if the exact length and the exact price paid for the formation of that length were given it would supply but the years outlay as regards the additions or repairs that had been made to the gully drains and certainly not furnish us with the original cost of the hole one experienced informant told me but let me premise that I heard from all the gentlemen whom I consulted a statement that they could only compute by analogy with other facts bearing upon the subject was confident that taking only 1200 miles of public way as gully drained that extent might be considered as the length of the gully drains themselves even calculating such strains to run from each side of the public way which is generally the case I am told that considering the economy of underground space which is now necessary the length of 1200 miles is as fair an estimate for gully drainage apart from other drainage as for the length of the streets so gullied hence we have for the gross extent of the hole sewers and drains of the metropolis the following result main covered sewers, 1100 miles house drains, 2840 miles gully drains for surface water of streets 1200 miles total length of the sewers and drains of the metropolis 5,140 miles the island of Great Britain I may observe is at its extreme points 550 miles from north to south and 290 from east to west it would therefore appear that the main sewers of the capital are just double the length of the whole island from the English channel to John of Grotes and nearly three times longer than the greatest width of the country but this is the extent of the sewage alone the drainage of London is about equal in length to the diameter of the earth itself of the cost of constructing the sewers and drains of the metropolis the money actually expended in constructing the 1100 miles of sewers and 4000 miles of drains even if we were only to date from January 1st 1800 is not and never can be known they have been built at intervals as the metropolis so to speak grew they were built also in many sizes and forms and at many variations of price according to the depth from the surface the good or bad management or the greater or lesser extent of jobry or patronage in the several independent commissions accounts were either not presented in the good old times or not preserved had the 1100 miles of sewers to be constructed anew they would be according to the present prices paid by the commissioners not including digging or such extraneous labour but the cost of the sewer only as follows 366 miles of sewers of the first class or 1,932,480 feet at 15 shillings per foot 1,449,360 pounds 366 miles or 1,932,480 feet of the second class at 11 shillings per foot 1,062,864 pounds same length of third class at 9 shillings per foot 869,616 pounds total cost of the sewers of the metropolis 3,381,840 pounds as this is a lower charge than was paid for the construction of more than 3 fourths of the sewers we may fairly assume that their cost amounted to from three millions and a half to four millions of pounds sterling the majority of the house drains running into the sewers are brick and seldom less than 9 inches square sometimes in the old brick drains they are some inches larger and in the very old drains and in some 100 years old wooden planks were often used instead of a brick or stone construction for the sake of reducing cost and replaced when rotted the wood in many cases soon decayed and since 1847 no wooden sewers have been allowed to be formed nor any old ones to be repaired with new wood the work must be of stone or brick if not pipeage about two thirds of the drains running from the houses to the sewers are brick the remaining third tubular or earthenware pipes the cost if now to be formed would be somewhat as follows 1893 and a third miles of brick drains five shillings per foot as average of sizes 2,499,200 pounds 945 and two thirds feet of tubular drains average of sizes two shilling sixpence 624,800 pounds total cost of the house drains of London 3,124,000 pounds the cost of the street or gully drains have still to be estimated the present cost of the nine inch gully pipe drains is about three shilling sixpence a foot of the six inch two shilling sixpence of the proportionate lengths of these two classes of street drains I have not been able to gain any account for I believe it has never been ascertained by any way approaching to a total return taking 1200 miles however as quite within the full length of the gully drains and calculating at the low average of three shillings the foot for the whole the total cost of the street drains of the metropolis would be 950,400 pounds or I am assured one might say a million sterling and this even if all were done at the present low prices the original cost would of course have been much greater hence according to the above calculations we have the following gross estimate of the cost of the sewers and drains of the metropolis 1,100 miles of main covered sewers 3,500,000 pounds 2,840 miles of house drains 3,000,000 pounds 1,200 miles of gully or street drains 1,000,000 pounds total 5,140 miles of sewers and drainage equals 7,500,000 pounds of the uses of sewers as a means of subsoil drainage there is one other purpose toward which a sewer is available a purpose too which I do not remember to have seen specified in the metropolitan reports the first and perhaps most important purpose of sewers as respects health says the report of Messers Walker, Kubit and Brunel 1848 is as under drains to the surrounding earth they answer this purpose so effectually and quietly and have done it so long that their importance in this respect is overlooked in the sanitary commissioners reports we do not find it once noticed and the recommendation of the substitution of stone or earthenware pipes for the larger brick sewers seems to show that any provision for the under drainage was thought unnecessary although such a provision is in our opinion most important under the artificial ground the collection of ages which in the city of London as in most ancient towns forms the upper surface is a considerable thickness of clean gravel and under the gravel is the London clay the present houses are founded chiefly on the artificial or made ground while the sewers are made through the gravel and it is known practically that however charged with water the gravel of a district may be the springs for a considerable distance round are drawn down by making a sewer and the wells that had water within a few feet of the surface have again to be sunk below the bottom of the sewer to reach the water every interstice between the stones of the gravel acts as an under drain to conduct the water to the sewer through the sides of which it finds its way even if water be used in the construction hence the celebrity of a gravel foundation if the water be drawn out of it by sewers or other means as is the case with the city and with Westminster a proof of this principle was afforded by the result of a reference to physicians and engineers in 1838 to inquire into the state of drainage and smells in and near Buckingham Palace as to which there had been complaints though none so heavy as Mr Phillips now makes when he says that the drainage of Buckingham Palace is extremely defective and that its precincts are reeking with filth and pestilential odours from the absence of proper sewerage the report then shows the pains that were taken to ensure dryness in the palace pits were dug in the garden 14 feet below the surface and 3.5 feet below high watermark in the river and they were found dry to the bottom the kitchens and yard of the palace are however only 18 inches above Trinity High Watermark in the Thames and therefore 18 inches below a very high tide the physicians are James Clark and the engineers Mr Simpson and Walker in a separate report spoke in terms of commendation of the drainage of the palace in 1838 as promotive of dryness since that time a connecting chain has been made from the palace drains into the canal in St James's park to prevent the wet from rising as formerly during heavy rains the palace it is stated in the report of the three engineers should not be classed with the low part of Pimlico where the drainage is we believe very defective and to which for anything we know to the contrary the character given by Mr Phillips may be applicable unfortunately however for this array of opinions of high authority and despite the advantages of a gravel bed for the substratum of the palatial sewerage the drainage and sewerage about Buckingham Palace is more frequently than that of any other public place under repair and is always requiring attention it was only a few days ago before the court left Windsor Castle for London that men were employed night and day on the drains and cesspoolage channels to make as one of them described it to me and such working men's descriptions are often forcible the place decent I was hardly ever he added in such a set of stinks as I've been in the sewers and underground parts of the palace end of section 73 section 74 of London Labour and the London poor volume 2 by Henry Mayhew this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Gillian Henry off the city sewers as yet I have spoken only of the sewers of London without the city but the sewers within the city though connected for the general public drainage and sewerage of the capital with the works under the control of the Metropolitan commissioners are in a distinct and strictly defined jurisdiction superintendent by city commissioners and managed by city officers and consequently demand a special notice note of the derivation of the word sewer there have been many conjectures but no approximation to the truth one of the earliest instances I have met with of any detailed mention of sewers is in an address delivered by a coroner whose name does not appear to a jury of sewers this address was delivered somewhere between the years 1660 and 1670 the coroner having first spoken of the importance of navigation and draining then came to the question of sewers sewers he said are to be accounted your grand issuers of water from whence I conceive they carry their name sewers quasi issuers I shall take his opinion who delivers them to be currents of water kept in on both sides with banks and in some sense they may be called a certain kind of a little or small river but as for the derivation of the word sewer note S-E-W-A-R end note from two of our English words see and where or as others will have it see and ward give me leave and now I have mentioned it to leave it to your judgments however this word sewer is very famous amongst us both for giving the title of the commission of sewers itself and for being the ordinary name of most of your common water courses for draining and therefore I presume there are none of you of these juries but both know one what sewers signify and also in particular to what they are and of a thing so generally known and of such general use the Reverend Dr Lemon who gave the world a work on English etymology from the Greek and Latin and from the Saxon and Norman was regarded as a high authority during the latter part of the last century when his quarto first appeared the following is his account under the head sewers skin rejects Minch's derivative of olem scriptum fuise sewered a seward code versus marifacte sunt longi verisimilius a father Gaul Uyer sentina in silly suple aquarium then why did not the doctor trace this father Gaul Uyer if he had he would have found it distorted ab Greek idor aqua sewers being a species of aqueduct lie in his addendum gives another derivation namely ab iceland sewer culare ut existimu ad quod refere velum sewer cloaca persordes urbes edicium tour the very word sordes gives me a hint that sewer may be derived a sireu vel sarau veru nempe kia sordes kie verunter e domo in umun locum acumulantor ar suros suros cumulus vos a collection of sweepings slop, dirt and so on but these are the follies of learning had our lexicographer is known that the vulgar were as Dr. Latham says the conservators of the Saxon language with us they would have sought information from the word shore which the uneducated and consequently unperverted invariably use in the place of the more polite sewer the common sewer is always termed by them the common shore now the word shore in Saxon is written s-c-o-r-e and s-c-o-r for c equals h and means not only a bank the land immediately next to the sea but a score, a tally for they are both substantives made from the verb s-c-e-ran past s-c-e-r s-c-e-r past participle s-c-o-r-an g-sc-o-r-an to shear, cut off, share, divide and hence they meant in the one case the division of the land from the sea and in the other a division cut in a piece of wood with a view to counting the substantive scar has the same origin as well as the verb to score to cut, to gash the Scandinavian cognates for the Saxon score may be cited as proofs of what is here asserted they are Icelandic s-l-o-r s-k-o-r a notch Swedish s-c-o-r a notch and Danish s-c-o-r s-k-a-e-r and s-c-o-r s-k-u-r-e a notch an incision it would seem therefore that the word shore in the sense of sewer Danish s-c-o-r-e Anglesey sure s-h-u-r-e for k equals h originally meant merely a score or incision made in the ground a ditch sunk with the view of carrying off the refuse water a water course and consequently a drain a sewer is now a covered ditch or channel for refuse water end note the account of the city sewers however may be given with a comparative brevity for the modes of their construction as well as their general management do not differ from what I have described to the extra civic metropolis there are nevertheless a few distinctions which it is proper to point out the city sewers are the oldest in the capital for the very plain reason that the city itself in its site if not now in its public and private buildings is the oldest part of London as regards the abode of a congregated body of people the ages so to speak of these sewers vary for the most part according to the dates of the city's rebuilding after the great fire and according to the dates of the many alterations improvements removal or rebuilding of new streets markets and so on which have been affected since that period before the great fire of 1666 all drainage seems with a few exceptions to have been fortuitous connected and superficial the first public sewer built after this important epoch in the history of London was in Ludgate Street and Hill this was the laudable work of the dean and chapter of St Paul's and was constructed at the instance it is said and after the plans of Sir Christopher Wren there is perhaps no official or documentary proof of this for the proclamation from the King in Council the Acts of Parliament and the resolutions of the Corporation of the City of London at that important period are so vague and so contradictory and were so frequently altered or abrogated and so frequently disregarded that it is more impossible than difficult to get at the truth of the fact which I have just mentioned however there need be no doubt nor that the second public city sewer was in Fleet Street commenced in 1668 the second year after the fire there are nevertheless older sewers than this but the dates of their construction are not known we have proof merely that they existed in old London or as it was described by an anonymous writer quoted if I remember rightly in Maitland's history of London London anti-ignum London before the fire these sewers or rather portions of sewers are severally near Newgate St Bartholomew's hospital sewer and that of the iron gate by the tower the sewer however which may be pointed out as the most remarkable is that of Little Murgate London Wall it is formed of red tiles and from such being its materials and from the circumstance of some Roman coins having been found near it it is supposed by some to be of Roman construction and of course co-evil with that people's possession of the country this sewer has a flat bottom upright sides and a circular arch at its top it is about 5 feet by 3 feet the other older sewers present much about the same form and an act in the reign of Charles II directs that sewers shall be so built but that the bottom shall have a circular curve I'm informed by a city gentleman when taking an interest in such matters that this sewer has troubled the repose of a few civic antiquaries some thinking that it was a Roman sewer while others scouted such an ocean arguing that the Romans were not in the habit of doing their work by halves and that if they had Seward London great and enduring remains would have been discovered for their main sewer would have been a solid construction and directed to the Thames as was and is the cloaca maxima in the eternal city to the Tiber others have said that the sewer in question was merely built of Roman materials perhaps first discovered about the time having originally formed a reservoir tank or even a bath and were keenly appropriated by some economical or scheming builder or city official that the Britons says Tacitus in his life of Agricola who led a roaming life and were easily incited to war might contract a love for peace by being accustomed to a pleasanter mode of life Agricola assisted them to build houses temples and marketplaces by praising the diligent and upgrading the idol he excited such emulation among the Britons that after they had erected all those necessary buildings in their towns they built others for pleasure and ornament as porticoes, galleries, baths and banqueting houses the sewers of the city of London are then a comparatively modern work indeed three fourths of them may be called modern the earlier sewers were as I have described under the general head ditches which in time were arched over but only gradually and partially as suited the convenience or the profit of the owners of property alongside those open channels some of which thus presented the appearance of a series of small and cooth-looking bridges when these bridges had to be connected so as to form the summit of a continuous sewer they presented every variety of arch both at their outer and undersides those two near the surface had to be lowered some of these sewers however were in the first instances connected despite difference of size and irregularity of form the result may be judged from the account I have given of the strange construction of some of the Westminster sewers under the head of subterranean survey how modern the city sewers are may best be estimated from the following table of what may be called the dates of their construction the periods are given decennially as to the progress of the formation of new sewers 1707 to 1717 2,805 feet 1717 to 1727 2,110 feet 1727 to 1737 2,763 feet 1737 to 1747 1,238 feet 1747 to 1757 3,736 feet 1757 to 1767 3,736 feet 1767 to 1777 7,597 feet 1777 to 1787 8,693 feet 1787 to 1797 3,118 feet 1797 to 1807 5,116 feet 1807 to 1817 5,097 feet 1817 to 1827 7,847 feet Subtotal to 1827 52,810 feet Readers note this is May Hughes printed Subtotal based on the individual decennial figures the Subtotal to 1827 would be 53,856 and Readers note 1827 to 1837 39,072 feet 1837 to 1847 8,363 feet Subtotal 1827 to 1847 1827 to 1847 127,435 feet Thus the length made in the 20 years previous to 1847 was more than double all that was made during the preceding 120 years While in the 10 years from 1837 to 1847 the addition to the lineal extent of Surage was very nearly equal to all that had been made in 130 years previously This addition of 127,435 feet or rather more than 24 miles seems but a small matter when London is thought of but the reader must be reminded that only a small portion comparatively of the metropolis is here spoken of The entire length of the city Surage at the close of 1847 was but 44 miles so that the additions I have specified as having been made since 1837 were more than one half of the whole The reconstructions are not included in the metage I have given for as the new Suras generally occupied the same site as the old they did not add to the length of the whole The total length of the city Surage was on the 31st of December 1851 no less than 49 miles while the entire public way was at the same recent period 51 miles containing about 1000 separate and distinct streets lanes, courts, alleys and so on and so on and I am assured that in another year or so not a furlong of the whole city will be un-surred The more ancient Suras usually have upright walls, a flat or slightly curved invert and a semicircular or gothic arch The form of such as have been built apparently more than 20 years ago is that of two semicircles of which the upper has a greater radius connected by sloping sidewalls those of recent construction are egg shaped The main lines are not unfrequently elliptic in the case of the fleet and other ancient affluence of the Thames the forms and dimensions vary considerably instances occur of Suras built entirely of stone but the material is almost invariably brick most commonly 9 inches in substance the larger Suras 14 and sometimes 18 inches The falls or inclinations in the course of the city Surage vary greatly as much as from 1 in 240 to 1 in 24 or in the first case from a fall of 22 feet in the latter of course to 10 times such fall or 220 feet per mile There are more over a few cases in which the inclination is as small as 1 in 960 others where it is as high as 1 in 14 This irregularity is to be accounted for partly by the want of system in the old times and partly from the natural levels of the ground the want of system and the indifference shown to providing a proper fall even where it was not difficult was more excusable a few years back than it would be at the present time for when some of these Suras were built the drainage of the house refuse into them was not contemplated The number of houses drained into the city Suras is as precisely as such a matter can be ascertained 11,209 The number drained into the cesspools is 5,030 This shows a preponderance of drainage into the Suras of 6,179 The length of the house drains in the city at an average of 50 feet to each house is estimated at upwards of 106 miles These city drains are included in the general computation of the metropolis The gully drains in the city are more frequent than in other parts of the metropolis owing to the continual intersection of streets and so on and perhaps from a closer care of the Surage and all matters connected with it The general average of the gully drains have shown to be 59 for every mile of street I am assured that in the city the street drains may be safely estimated at 65 to the mile Estimating the streets gullied within the city then at an average of 50 miles or about a mile more than the Suras The number of gully drains is 3,250 and the length of them about 50 miles But these, like the house drains have been already included in the metropolitan enumeration The actual sum expended yearly upon the construction and repairs and improvements of the city Suras cannot be cited as a distinct item because the court makes the return of the aggregate annual expenditure as regards pavement cleansing and the matters specified as the general expenditure under the court of commissioners of the city Suras The cost however of the construction of Suras comprised within the civic boundaries is included in the general metropolitan estimate before given of the outlets ramifications and so on of the Suras In this enumeration I speak only of the public outlets into the river controlled and regulated by public officers The orifices are mouths of the Suras where they discharge themselves into the Thames Beginning from their eastern and following them Seriatum to their western extremity are as follows Limehouse Hole Iron Gate Wharf East Cliff Cross Fox Lane Shadwell London Dock St Catherine's Dock The 11 city outlets which I shall specify here after Essex Street Strand Norfolk Street Strand Durham Hill Northumberland Street Scotland Yard Bridge Street Westminster Pimlico Cubits also in Pimlico Chelsea Bridge Fulham Bridge Hammersmith Bridge Sanford Bridge into a sort of creek of the Thames or near the four bridges Tuckinham Hampton In all 32 It might only weary the reader to enumerate the outlets on the Surrey side of the Thames which are 28 in number so that the public sewer outlets of the whole metropolis are 60 in all The public sewer outlets from the City of London into the Thames are as I have said 11 in number or rather they are usually represented as 11 though in reality there are 12 such orifices the Upper and Eastern Custom House Sewers which are distinct being computed as one These outlets generally speaking the most ancient in the whole metropolis are London Bridge Ancient Wallbrook Paul's Wharf The Fleet Street Sewer at Blackfriars Bridge I mentioned these four first because they are the largest outlets Tower Dock Pool Key Custom House New Wallbrook Puddle Dock Until recently there was also White Friars Docks but this is now attached to the Fleet Sewer outlet The Fleet Sewer is the oldest in London No portion of the ditch or river composing it is now uncovered within the jurisdiction of the city but until a little more than 11 years ago a portion of it North of Hoburn was uncovered and had been uncovered for years Indeed as I have before intimated, barges and small craft were employed on the Fleet River and the city determined to encourage its navigation Even the polite Earl of Chesterfield a century ago for his lordship was born in 1694 and died in 1773 When asked by a Frenchman in Paris if there was in London a river to compare to the Seine replied that there certainly was and it was called Fleet Ditch This is now the sewer but it was not a covered sewer until 1765 when the corporation ordered it to be built over The next oldest sewer outlet is that at London Bridge and London Antiquaries are not agreed as to whether it or the fleet is the oldest The Fleet Sewer at Black Friars Bridge is 18 feet high between Tudor Street and Fleet Bridge about the foot of Ludgate Hill 14 feet 3 inches high at Hoburn Bridge 13 feet and in its continuation in the long unfinished Victoria Street 12 feet 3 inches In all these localities it is 12 feet wide The new London Bridge sewer built or rebuilt wholly or partly in 1830 is 10 feet by 8 the outlet decreasing to the south end of King William Street where it is 9 feet by 7 while it is 8 feet by 7 in Moorgate Street Paul's Wharf sewer is 7 feet 6 inches by 5 feet 6 inches near the outlet With the one exception of the Fleet River none of the City Sewer outlets are covered the Fleet outlet being covered even at low water it runs in open channels upon the shore Mr. Haywood February 12th 1850 in a report of the City Sewer Transactions and Works observes During the year 1849 the outlet sewers at Billingsgate and White Friars two of the outlets of Main Sewers which discharged at the line of the River Wall have been diverted there remain therefore but 11 Main outlets within the jurisdiction of this commission which discharge their waters at the line of the River Wall as a temporary measure it is expedient to convey the sewage of the whole of the outlets within the city by covered culverts below low watermark this subject has been under the consideration both of this commission and the navigation committee whether the covered culvert is better than the open run is a matter disputed among engineers as are very many other matters connected with sewage and one into which I need not enter Mr. Haywood says further the Fleet Sewer already discharges its average flow by a culvert below low watermark with one exception only I believe none of the numerous outlets which for a length of many miles intervals into the Thames at the line of the River Wall both within and without your jurisdiction discharged by culverts in a similar manner these 11 outlets are far from being the whole number which give their contents into the silver bosom of the Thames along the bank line of the city jurisdiction there are including the 11 182 outlets but these are not under the control unless in cases of alteration nuisance and so on of the court of sewers they are the outlets from the drainage of the wharfs public buildings or factories such as gas works and so on on the banks of the river and the right to form such outlets having been obtained from the navigation committee who under the Lord Mayor are conservators of the Thames the care of them is regarded as a private matter and therefore does not require further notice in this work the officers of the city court of sewers observe these outlets in their rounds of inspection but interfere only on application from any party concerned unless a nuisance be in existence to convey a more definite notion of the extent and ramified sweep of the sewers I will now describe for the first time some of the chief sewer ramifications and then show the proportionate or average number of public ways of inhabited houses and of the population to each great main sewer distinguishing in this instance those as great main sewers which have an outlet into the Thames the reader should pursue the following accounts with the assistance of a map of the environs for thus aided you will be better able to form a definite notion of the curiously mixed and blended extent of the sewerage already spoken of first then as to the ramifications of the great and ancient fleet outlet from its mouth so to speak near Blackfriars bridge its course is not parallel with any public way but running somewhat obliquely it crosses below Tudor street into bridge street Blackfriars then occupies the centre of Farringdon street and that street's prolongation or intended prolongation into the new Victoria street the houses in this locality having been pulled down long ago and the spot being now popularly known as the ruins and continues until the city portion of the fleet sewer meets the metropolitan jurisdiction between saffron and mutton hills the junction so to call it being under the houses a common phrase among flishermen note this outlet is known to the flishermen and so on as below the backs of houses from its devious course under the houses without pursuing any direct line parallel with the open part of the streets end note a little further on it connects itself with an open part of the fleet ditch running at the back of Turmill street Clarkinwell in its city course the sewer receives the issue from 150 public ways including streets, alleys, courts lanes and so on which are emptied into it from the second, third or smaller class sewers from Ludgate hill and its proximate streets the St Paul's locality Fleet street and its adjacent communications in public ways with a series of sewers running down from parts of Smithfield and so on the greatest accession of sewage however which the fleet receives from one issue is a few yards beyond where the city has merged into the metropolitan jurisdiction this accession is from a first class sewer known as the white cross street sewer because running from that street and carrying into the fleet the contributions of 60 crowded streets after the junction of the covered city sewer with the uncovered ditch in Clarkinwell the Fleet river sewer again covered skirts round cold bath fields prison the Middlesex house of correction runs through Clarkinwell green into the Bagnidge wells road sew on to battle bridge and King's cross then along the old St Pancras road and then to the King's road a name now almost extinct where the St Pancras work house stands close by the Turnpike gate along Upper College Street Camden town is then the direction of this great sewer and running under the canal at the higher part of Camden town near the bridge by the terminus of the great north-western railway it branches into the highways and thoroughfares of Kentish town of Highgate and of Hampstead respectively and then at what one informant described as the outside of those places receives the open ditches which form the further sewerage under the control of the commissioners who cause them to be cleansed regularly in order to show more consecutively the direction from place to place in straight, devious or angular course of this the most remarkable sewer of the world considering the extent of the drainage into it I have refrained from giving beyond the white cross street connection with the fleet an account of the number of streets to this old civic stream I now proceed to supply this deficiency from a large outlet at Clarkinwell Green a very thickly built neighbourhood flows the connected sewerage of 100 streets at Maiden Lane, beyond King's Cross a district which is now being built upon for the purposes of the great northern railway the sewerage of 10 streets is poured into it in the course of this sewer along Camden town it receives the issue of some 20 branches or 40 streets and so on about 15 other issues are received before the open ditches of Kentish town Highgate and Hampstead are encountered it is not however merely the sewerage collected in the precincts of the city proper which is outletted as I heard a flisherman call it into the Thames other districts are drained into the large city outlets during the river many of your works says Mr Haywood the city surveyor in a report addressed to the city commissioners October 23rd, 1849 have been beneficially felt by district some miles distant from the city 29 outlets have been provided by you for the sewage of the county of Middlesex the highland off and about Hampstead drains through the fleet sewer Holloway and a portion of Islington will now be drained by the London Bridge sewer Norton Fallgate and the densely populated districts adjacent are also relieved by it on the other hand the Irongate sewer one of the most important which has its outlet in the Tower Hamlets drains a portion of the city the reader must bear in mind also that were he to traverse the fleet sewer in the direction described for all the men I conversed with on the subject if asked to show the course of sewage with which they were familiar began from the outlet into the Thames the reader I say must remember that he would be advancing all the way against the stream in a direction in which he would find the sewage flowing onward to its mouth while his course would be towards its sources on the left hand side for the account before given refers only to the right hand side preceding in the same direction after passing the underground precincts of the city proper there is another addition near Saffron Hill of the sewage of 30 streets then at Grey's Inn Road is added the sewage of 100 streets New Road at Kings Cross 20 more streets from the Hall of Summerstown a populous locality the sewage concentrating all the busy and crowded places round about the Brill and so on the sewage of 120 streets is received and at Pratt Street Camden Town 12 other streets thus into this sewage current directed to one final outlet are drained the refuse of 517 streets including of course a variety of minor thoroughfares courts alleys and so on and so on as in the neighbourhoods of Grey's Inn Road in Clarkinwell Summerstown and so on some of these tributaries to the efflux of the sewage are barrel drains but perform the function of sewers along small courts where there is no thoroughfare either upon or below the surface the London Bridge Sewer runs up King William Street to Moorgate Street along Finsbury Square into the City Road diverging near the Wharf Road which it crosses under the canal near the Wenlock Basin then along the lower road Islington by Cough Lane through Highbury Vale after this at the extremity of Holloway the open ditches as in the former instance carry on the conveyance of sewage from the outer suburbs the King's Scholars Ponds Sewer which seems to have given the commissioners more trouble than any other in its connection with Buckingham Palace St. James's Park and the new houses of Parliament runs from Chelsea Bridge past Cubitt's Workshops and along the King's Road to Eaton Square the whole of which is drained into it then turning round as one man described it it approaches Buckingham Palace which with its grounds as well as a portion of St. James's and the Green Parks is drained into this sewer then branching away for the reception of the sewage from the houses and gardens of Chelsea it drains Sloan Street and crossing the Nightsbridge Road runs through or across Hyde Park to the Swan at Bayswater when its course is by the Westburn District and under the canal along Paddington until it attains the open country or rather the grounds in that quarter which have been very extensively and are now still being built over and where new sewers are constructed simultaneously with new streets thus in the reach as I heard it happily and aft designated of each of these great sewers the reader will see from a map the extent of the subterranean metropolis traversed alike along crowded streets ringing with the sounds of traffic among palatial and aristocratic domains and along the parks which adorn London as well as winding their ramifying course among the courts, alleys and teeming streets the resorts of misery, poverty and vice estimating then the number of sewers from the number of their river outlets and regarding all the rest as the branches or tributaries to each of these superior streams we have adopting the area before specified as being drained by the metropolitan sewers namely 58 square miles the following results each of the 60 sewers having an outlet into the Thames drains 618 statute acres and assuming the number of houses included within these 58 square miles to be 200,000 and the population to amount to 1,500,000 or two thirds of the houses and people included in the Registrar General's Metropolis we may say that each of the 60 sewers would carry into the Thames the refuse from 25,000 individuals and 3,333 inhabited houses this however is partly prevented by the cesspoolage system which supplies receptacles for a proportion of the refuse that where London to be rebuilt according to the provisions of the present Building and Sanitary Acts would all be carried without any interception into the river Thames by the media of the Thames by the media of the sewers in my account of cesspoolage I shall endeavour to show the extent of fecal refuse and so on contained in places not communicating with the sewers and to be removed by the labour of men and horses as well as the amount of fecal refuse carried into the sewerage End of Section 74 Section 75 of London Labour and the London Poor Volume 2 by Henry Mayhew this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Gillian Henry of the qualities and so on of the sewage the question of the value the uses and the best means of collecting for use the great mass of the sewage of the metropolis seems to have become complicated by the statements which have been of late years put forth by rival projectors and rival companies in our smaller country towns the neighbourhood of many being remarkable for fertility and for a green beauty of meadowland and pastureage the refuse of the towns whether sewage or cesspoolage if not washed into a current stream or river is purchased by the farmers and carted by them to spread upon the land by sewage I mean the contents of the sewage or of the series of sewers which neither at present nor I believe at any former period has been applied to any useful or profitable purpose by the metropolitan authorities the readyist mode to get rid of it without any care about ultimate consequences has always been resorted to and that mode has been to convey it into the Thames and leave the rest to the current of the stream but the Thames has its ebbs as well as its flow and the consequence is the sewage which is not rid off the most eminent of our engineers have agreed that it is a very important consideration how the sewage should be not only innocuously but profitably disposed of and if not profitably in an immediate money return to those who may be considered its owners the municipal authorities of the kingdom at least profitably in a national point of view by its use in the restoration of the fertility of the soil and the consequent increase of the food of man and beast Sir George Stanton has pronounced some of the tea-growing parts of China to be as blooming as an English nobleman's flower garden every jot of manure human orger and all else is minutely collected even by the poorest I have already given a popular account of the composition of the metropolitan sewage and so on in the head of wet refuse and I now give it scientific analysis in some districts the sewage is more or less liquid in what proportion has not been ascertained and I give in the first place an analysis of the sewage of the king's scholar's pond sewer Westminster the result having been laid before a committee of the House of Commons as the contents of the great majority of sewers must be the same because resulting from the same natural or universally domestic causes as in the refuse of cookery, washing, surface water and so on the analysis of the sewage of the king's scholar's pond sewer may be accepted as one of the sewer matter generally evidence was given before the committee as to the proportion of land drainage water to what was really manure and the matter derived from the sewer in question a produce of 140 grains of manure was derived from a gallon of sewer water Messer's brand and Cooper the analysers also state that one gallon 10 pounds of the liquid portion of the sewage evaporated to dryness gave 85.3 grains of solid matter 74.8 grains of which was again soluble and contained ammonia 3.29 sulfuric acid 0.62 phosphate of lime 0.29 lime 6.25 chlorine 10.0 and potash and soda with a large quantity of soluble and vegetable matter and 10.54 insoluble this insoluble portion consisted of phosphate of lime 2.32 of lime 1.94 silica 6.28 total 10.54 the deposit from another gallon weighed 55 grains of which 21.22 were combustible being composed of animal matter rich in nitrogen some vegetable matter and a quantity of fat of this matter 33.75 grains consisted of phosphate of lime 6.81 oxide of iron 2.01 carbonate of lime 1.75 sulphate of lime 1.53 earthy matter and sand 21.65 total 33.75 other reports and other evidence show that what is described as earthy matter and sand black mud and the mortar or concrete used in pavement washed from the surface of the streets into the sewers by heavy rains otherwise for the most part the proper load of the scavengers cart further analyses might be but with merely such variation in the result as is inevitable from the state of the weather when the sewage is drawn forth for examination whether the day on which this is done is dry or wet note the following is the analysis of a gallon of sewage also dried to evaporation by Professor Miller ammonia 3.26 phosphoric acid 0.44 potash 1.02 silica 0.54 lime 7.54 magnesium 1.87 common salt 13.66 sulphuric acid 7.04 carbonic acid 4.41 combustible matter containing 0.34 nitrogen 5.8 traces of oxide of iron making in solution 45.58 matters in suspension consisting of combustible matters sand, lime and oxide of iron 4.50 and note it has been ascertained but the exact proportion is not and perhaps cannot be given that the extent of covered to uncovered surface in the district drained by the King's scholars Pond Sewer was as 3 to 1 while that of the Ranilof Sewer not far distant was as 1 to 3 at the time of the inquiry 1848 not be expected therefore says the report that the Ranilof Sewer which moreover is open to the admission of the tide at its mouth in the quantity or quality of the manure produced could bear any proportion to the King's scholars Pond Sewer Mr. Smith of Dienston stated in evidence that the average quantity of rain falling into King's scholars Pond Sewer was 139,934,586 cubic feet in a year and he assumes 6 million tonnes as the amount of average minimum quantity of drainage yearly yielding 400 weight of solid matter in each 100 tonnes equals 1 in 500 Dr. Granville said on the same inquiry that he should be sorry to receive on his land 500 tonnes of diluted sewer water such as that from the uncovered Ranilof Sewer I could easily multiply these analyses and give further parliamentary or official statements but as the results are the same I will merely give some extracts from the evidence of Dr. Arthur Hassel as to the microscopic constituents of sewage water I have examined he said the sewer water of several of the principal sewers I have examined I have examined the water of several of the principal sewers of London I found in it, amongst many other things much decomposing vegetable matter portions of the husks and the hairs of the down of wheat the cells of the potato, cabbage and other vegetables while I detected but few forms of animal life those encountered for the most part being a kind of worm or anilid and a certain species of animal of the genus Monus how do you account the doctor was asked for the comparative absence of animal life in the water of most sewers it is doubtless to be attributed, he replied in a great measure to the large quantity of sulphurated hydrogen contained in sewer water and which is continually being evolved by the decomposing substances included in it have you any evidence to show that sewer water does contain sulphurated hydrogen in such large quantity as to be prejudicial and even fatal to animal life with a view of determining this question I made the following experiments a given quantity of Thames water known to contain living infusoria was added to an equal quantity of sewer water examined a few minutes afterwards the animalcule were found to be either dead out of locomotive power and in a dying state a small fish placed in a wine glass of sewer water immediately gave signs of distress and after struggling violently floated on its side and would have perished in a few seconds had it not been removed and placed in fresh water a bird placed in a glass bell jar into which the gas evolved by the sewer water was allowed to pass after struggling a good deal and showing other symptoms of the action of the gas suddenly fell on its side and although immediately removed into fresh air was found to be dead these experiments were made in the first instance with the sewer water of the fryer street sewer near the black fryer's road they were afterwards repeated with the water of six other sewers on the middle sex side and with the same result as respect the animalcule and fish but not the bird this although evidently much affected by the noxious emanations of the sewer water yet survived the experiment would you infer from these experiments that sewer water as contained in the Thames near to London is prejudicial to health I would most decidedly and regard the Thames in the neighbourhood of the metropolis as nothing less than diluted sewer water you have just stated you have found sewer water to contain much vegetable matter and but few forms of animal life the vegetable matter you recognise I presume by the character of the cells composing the several vegetable tissues yes as also by the action of iodine on the start of the vegetable matter in what way do you suppose these various vegetable cells the husks of wheat and so on reach the sewers they doubtless proceed from the fecal matter contained in sewage and not in general from the ordinary refuse of the kitchen which usually finds its way into the dustbin sewer water then although containing but few forms of animal life yet contains in large quantities the food upon which most animalcule feed yes and it is this circumstance which explains the vast abundance of infusorial life in the water of the Thames within a few miles of London the same gentleman a fellow of the Linnean society and the author of a history of the British fresh water algae or water weeds considered popularly in answer to the following inquiries in connection with the subject also said what species of infusoria represent the highest degree of impurity in water the several species of the genera oxytrica and paramecium what species is most abundant in the Thames from cube ridge to willage the paramecium chrysalis of Ehrenberg this occurs in all seasons of the year and in all conditions of the river in vast and incalculable numbers so much so that a quart bottle of Thames water obtained in any condition of the tide is sure to be found on examination with the microscope to contain these creatures in great quantity do you find that the infusorium of which you have spoken varies in number in the different parts of the river between cube ridge and willage I find that it is most abundant in the neighbourhood of the bridges where the outlet of the sewers is common then the order of impurity of Thames water in your view would be the order in which it approaches the centre of London yes you find then in Thames water about the bridges things decidedly connected with the sewer water as vegetable and animal matter in a state of decomposition I do about the bridges and in the neighbourhood of London there is very little living vegetable matter on which animal peel could live the only source of supply which they have is the organic matter contained in sewer water and which is to be regarded as the food of these creatures where infusoria abound under circumstances not connected with sewage vegetable matter in a living condition is certain to be met with respecting the uses of the sewage I may add the following brief observations without wishing in any way to prejudice the question indeed the reader will bear in mind that I have all along spoken reprovingly of the waste of sewage I am bound to say that the opinions I heard during my enquiry from gentlemen scientifically and in some instances practically familiar with the subject concurred in the conclusion that the sewage of the metropolis cannot with all the applications of scientific skill and apparatus be made either sufficiently portable or efficacious for the purposes of manure to assure a proper pecuniary return in this matter perhaps speculators have not traced a sufficient distinction between the liquid manure of the sewers and the pudret prime manure manufactured from the more solid excrementious matter of the cesspools not only in Paris but until lately even in London where the business was chiefly in the hands of Frenchmen the staple of the French pudret is not sewage that is the outpourings of the sewers for this is carried into the sen and washed away with little inconvenience as the tide hardly affects that river in Paris but it is altogether cesspoolage that is the deposit of the cesspools collected in fixed and movable utensils regulated by the universal police of Paris and conveyed by government labourers to the voiret which are huge reservoirs of night soil at Montfasson about 5 miles and in the forest of Bondy about 10 miles from the centre of Paris the London made manure also all of cesspoolage the contents of the nightmare's cart being shot in the manufacturer's yard and when so manufactured was I believe without exception sent to the sugar growing colonies the farmers in the provinces pronouncing it too hot for the ground the same complaint I may observe has been made of the French manufactured cesspool manure I heard on the other hand opinions from scientific and general gentlemen that the sewer water of London was so diluted it was not profitably serviceable for the irrigation of land all however agreed that the sewage of the metropolis ought not to be wasted as it was certain that perseverance in experiment and perhaps a large outlay were certain to make sewage of value the following results which the Board of Health have just issued in a report containing minutes of information attested on the application of sewer water and town manures to agricultural production supply the latest information on this subject the report says first that to be told that the average yield of a county is 30 bushels of wheat per acre or that the average weight of the turnip crop is 15 tonnes per acre means very little and there is little to be learned from such intelligence but if it is shown that a under the usual mode of culture yielded certain weights per acre and that the same land by improved applications of the same manure by the use of machinery and by employing double the number of hands at increased wages is made to yield fourfold the weight of crop and of better quality than was previously obtained a lesson is set before us worth learning it then proceeds to cite the following statements on the honorable Dudley Fortescue as to the efficiency of sewage water as a liquid manure applied to land quote the first farm we visited was that of craig and tinny situated about one mile and a half south east of Edinburgh of which 260 scotch acres a scotch acre is one fourth more than any English acre receive a considerable portion of such sewerage as under an imperfect system of house drainage is it present derived from half the city the meadows of which it chiefly consists have been put under irrigation at various times the most recent addition being nearly 50 acres laid out in the course of last year and the year previous which lying above the level of the rest are irrigated by means of a steam engine the meadows first laid out are watered by contour channels following the inequalities of the land after the fashion commonly adopted in Devonshire but in the more recent parts the ground is disposed in pains of half an acre served by their respective feeders a plan which though somewhat more expensive at the outset is found preferable in practice the whole 260 acres take about 44 days to irrigate the men charged with the duty of shifting the water from one pain to another give to a plot about 2 hours irrigation at a time and the engine serves its 50 acres in 10 days working day and night and employ one man at the engine and another to shift the water the produce of the meadows is sold by auction on the ground route as it is termed to the cow feeders of Edinburgh the purchaser cutting and carrying off all he can during the course of the letting which extends from about the middle of April to October when the meadows are shut up but the irrigation is continued through the winter the lettings average somewhat over 20 pounds the acre the highest last year having brought 31 pounds and the lowest 9 pounds these last were of very limited extent on land recently denuded in laying out the ground and consequently much below its natural level of productiveness there are four cuttings in the year and the collective weight of grass cut in parts was stated at the extraordinary amount of 80 tons the imperial acre the only cost of maintaining these meadows except those to which the water is pumped by the engine consists in the employment of two hands to turn on and off the water and in the expense of clearing out the channels which was contracted for last year at 29 pounds and the value of the refuse obtained was considered fully equal to that sum being applied in manuring parts of the land for a crop of turnips which with only this dressing in addition to irrigation with the sewage water presented the most luxuriant appearance the crop from present indications was estimated at from 30 to 40 tons the acre and was expected to realise 15 shillings a ton sold on the land from calculations made on the spot we estimated the produce of the meadows during the eight months of cutting at the keep of 10 cows per acre exclusive of the distillery refuse they consume in addition at a cost of one shilling to one shilling sixpence per head per week the sea meadows present a particularly striking example of the effects of the irrigation these comprising between 20 and 30 acres skirting the shores between leaf and muscle borough were laid down in 1826 at a cost of about 700 pounds the land consisted formerly of a bare sandy tract yielding almost absolutely nothing it is now covered with luxuriant vegetation extending close down to high water mark and lets at an average of 20 pounds per acre at least from the above statement it will be seen how enormously profitable has been the application in this case of town refuse in the liquid form and I have no hesitation in stating that great as its advantages have been they might be extended four or five fold by greater dilution of the fluid four or five times the extent of land might I believe be brought into equally productive cultivation under an improved system of drainage in the city for abundant use of water besides these craig and tinny meadows there are others on this and on the west side of Edinburgh which we did not visit similarly laid out and I believe realising still larger profits from their closer proximity to the town and they're lying within the tall gates note the following note appears to Mr Fortescue statement in some trial works near the metropolis sewer water to land on the condition that the value of half the extra crop should be taken as payment the dressings were only single dressings the officer making the valuation reported that there was at the least one sack of wheat and one load of straw per acre extra from its application on one breath of land in another full one quarter of wheat more and one load of straw extra per acre reports of the effects of sewer water in increasing the yield of oats as well as of wheat were equally good it is stated by Captain Vetch that in South America irrigation is used with great advantage for wheat and note such then are said to be the results of a practical application of sewer water the preliminary remark of the Board of Health however applies somewhat to the statement above given for not told what the same land produced before the liquid manure was applied nor are we informed as to the peculiar condition and quantity of the land near Cregentini and how it differs from the land near London the other returns are of liquid manures of which sewer water formed no part and therefore require no special notice of them the following observations are however worthy of attention quote the cases above detailed furnish some measure of the possible results attainable in cultivation especially corroborated as they are by others which did not on this occasion come under our personal observation but one of which I may mention having recently examined into it that of Mr. Dickinson at Willesden who estimates his yield of Italian ryegrass at from 80 to 100 tons an acre and gets 8 or 10 cuttings according to the season and as there is no peculiar advantage of soil or climate the former ranging from almost pure sands to cold and tenacious clays and the latter being inferior to that of a large proportion of England to prevent the same system being almost universally adopted they give some idea of the degree to which the productiveness of land may be raised by a judicious appliance of the means within our reach when it is considered that such results may in the vicinity of towns and villages be most effectively brought about by the instant removal of all those matters which when allowed to remain in them are among the most fruitful sources of social degradation, disease and death one cannot but earnestly desire the furtherance of such measures as will ensure this double result of purifying the town and as the facts I have stated came at the same time under the notice of the gentleman I mentioned above under whose able superintendence the arrangements for the water supply and drainage of several towns are now in court of execution I trust it will not be long before this most advantageous mode of disposing of the refuse of towns may be brought into practical operation in various parts of the country I have and so on the F Fortescue General Board of Health end quote of the new plan of sewerage this branch of the subject hardly forms part of my present inquiry but having pointed out the defects of the sewers it seems much reasonable and right to say a few words on the measures determined upon for their improvement it is only necessary for me however to indicate the principal characteristics of the new or rather intended mode of sewerage as the work may be said to have been but commenced or hardly commenced in earnest the report of Mr Frank Forster the engineer bearing the date of January 30th 1851 in the carrying out of the engineered plan which from its magnitude and in all human probability from its cost when completed would be national in other countries but is here only metropolitan in the carrying out of this scheme I say two remarkable changes will be found the one is the employment of the power of steam in sewerage the other is the diversion of the sewage from the current of the Thames the ultimate uses of this sewage agriculturally or otherwise form no part of the present consideration I should however first enumerate the general principles on which the best authorities have agreed that the London Sewers should be constructed so as to ensure a proper disposal of the sewage for these principles are said to be at the basis of Mr Forster's plan I condense under the following heads the substance of a mass of reports, committee meetings suggestions, plans and so on one the channels or pipage or other means of conveying away house refuse should be so made that the removal will be immediate were especially of any refuse or filth capable of suspension in water since its immediate carrying off it is said would leave no time for the generation of miasma two means should be provided for such disposal of sewage as would prevent its tainting any stream well or pool or by its stagnation or obstruction in any way poisoning the atmosphere and as a natural and legitimate result it should be so collected that it could be applied to the cultivation of the land at the most economical rate three, in providing works of deposit or storage in low districts or of discharge where the natural outlets are free such works should be provided as would not subject any place or any man's property to the risk of inundation or any other evil consequence while in the construction of the drainage of the substratum the works should be at such depth below the foundation of all buildings that tenements should not be exposed to that continued damage from exhalation and dampness which leads to the dry rot in timber and to an immature decay of materials and a general unhealthiness there are other points insisted upon in many reports to which I need but allude such as A, the channels containing sewage should be often during and impermeable material so as to prevent all soakage B, there should be throughout the channels of the subterranean metropolis a fall or inclination which would suffice to prevent the accumulation of any sewage deposit with its deleterious influence and ultimate costliness C, similar provisions should be used where it but to prevent the accumulation of the noxious gases which now permeate many houses especially in the quarters inhabited by the poor and escape into many streets courts and alleys for until improvements are affected the pent-up sewage and the saturated brickwork of the sewers and older drains must generate such gases D, no tidal stream should ever receive a flow of sewage because then the cause of evil is ever absent for the filth comes back with the tide and as the Thames water constitutes the grand fount of metropolitan consumption the water companies with very trifling exceptions give us back much of our own excrement mixed with every conceivable and sometimes noxious nastiness with which we may brew, cook and wash and drink if we can filtering remedies but a portion of the evil now it would appear that not one of these requirements the necessity of which is unquestioned and unquestionable is fully carried out by the present system of sewage and hence the need of some new plan in which the defects may be remedied and the proper principles carried out the instructions given by the court were to the following effect A, the Thames should be kept free from sewage whatever the state of the tide B, there should be intercepting drains to carry off the sewage so keeping the Thames unsoiled by it, wherever practicable C, the sewage should be raised by artificial means into a main channel for removal D, the intercepting sewers should be so constructed as to secure the largest amount of effective drainage without artificial appliances In preparing his plan the forester had the advice and assistance of Mr Haywood of the city court of sewers the metropolis is divided into two portions the northern portion of the metropolis or rather that portion of the metropolis which is on the north or middle sex bank of the Thames and the southern portion or that which is on the south or Surrey side of the river the northern portion is in the new plan considered to divide itself into two separate areas and to these two areas different modes of sewage are to be applied one the interception of the drainage of that district which from its elevation above the level of the outlet is capable of having its sewage and rainfall carried off by gravitation two the interception of the drainage of that district which from its low lying position will require its sewage and in most localities its rainfall to be lifted by steam power to a proper level for discharge the first district runs from Holston Green beyond the better known Kenzel Green in the west to the Tower Hamlets in the east its form is irregular but not very much so merely narrowing from westburn green to its western extremity the country then becoming rural or woodland its highest reaches to the north are to Highgate and Stamford Hill the nearest approach to the south is to a portion of the strand between Charing Cross and Drury Lane care has evidently been taken to skirt this district so to speak by the canals and the railroads this division of the northern portion is described as the district for natural drainage the area of this division is about 25 and a 6th the second division meets the first at the highway separating Kensington Gardens from Bayswater and runs on bordering the river all the way to the west India dock its shape is irregular but abating the roundness presents somewhat of that sort of figure seen in the instrument known as a dumbbell the narrowest or hand part being that between Charing Cross and Drury Lane skirting the river as its southern bound at its eastern end this second district widens abruptly taking in Victoria Park Stratford and Bromley the area of this division of the northern portion is 16 and a 6th square miles there are more over two small tracts comprising the southern part of the Isle of Dogs and a narrow slip on the west side of the river Lee which are intended to allow the rainfall to run into the Thames and the Lee respectively the area of the two is 1 and 3 quarter square miles the area to be drained by natural outfall comprises then 25 and a 6th square miles as regards rainfall and the same extent as regards sewage while the area to the drainage of which steam power is to be applied comprises 14 and a 3rd square miles of rainfall and 16 and a 6th square miles of sewage the two united areas of rainfall and sewage respectively being 39 and a half and 41 and a 3rd square miles the length of the great high level sewerage will be as regards the main sewer 19 miles and 106 yards that of the low level sewerage 14 miles and 1,501 yards I will now describe the course of each of these constructions on the eastern bank of the Lee the sewage of both districts is to be concentrated the high level sewer will commence and cross the Lee near the 4 mills it is then to proceed in a westerly direction under the east and west India dock railway and the blackwall extension railway beneath the regents canal to the east end of the Bethnal Green Road at the crossing of the Cambridge Heath Road at which point it will be joined by the proposed northern division of the Hackney Brook which drains an extensive district to the watershed line north of London including Hackney, Stoke Newington and Holloway and part of Highgate and Hampstead from thence the main sewer proceeds along the Bethnal Green Road, Church Street Old Street, Wilderness Row where a short branch from Cuppes Row will join to Brook Street Hill from thence to Little Saffron Hill where a distance of about 100 yards is proposed to be carried by an aqueduct over the Fleet Valley along Liquor Pond Street at the end of which it will receive a branch from Piccadilly on the south side and a diversion of the Fleet River on the north side thence along Theobalds Road Loomsbury Square Hart Street, New Oxford Street to Rathbone Place where it will receive a diversion of the Regent Street sewer from Park Crescent along Oxford Street and extending thence across Regent Circus to South Moulton Lane where it will intercept the King Scholar's Pond sewer continuing still along Oxford Street to Bayswater Place Grand Junction Road, Uxbridge Road where it is joined by the Rannula sewer the sewage of which it is capable of receiving and at this point it terminates it is difficult to convey to a reader especially to a reader who may not be familiar with the localities of London generally any adequate notion of the largeness speaking merely of extent of this undertaking even a map conveys no sufficient idea of it perhaps I may best be able to suggest to a reader's mind a knowledge of this largeness when I state that in the district I have just described which is but one portion although the greatest of the sewage of but one side of the Thames more than half a million of persons and nearly 100,000 houses are so to speak to be sewered the low level tracked sewerage also concentrates on the Lee near to four mills distillery taking the north western bank of the Limehouse Cut at which point it receives the branch intended to intercept the sewage of the Isle of Dogs then continuing along the bank of Limehouse Cut through a portion of the commercial road, Brook Street and beneath the Sun Tavern Fields into High Street or Upper Shadwell then along Ratcliffe Highway and Upper East Smithfield across Tower Hill through Little and Great Tower Streets East Cheep, Cannon Street Little and Great St Thomas Apostle Trinity Lane, Old Fish Street and Little Knight Rider Street then beneath houses in Wardrobe Terrace and on the eastern side of St Andrews Hill along Earl Street to Blackfriars Road from Blackfriars Bridge it is proposed to construct the sewer along the river shore at the junction of the Victoria Street sewer at Percy Wharf which sewer between Percy Wharf and Shafsbury Terrace Pimlico becomes thus an integral portion of the intercepting line at Bridge Street Westminster a branch from the Victoria Street sewer is intended to proceed along Abingdon and Millbank Streets as far as and for the purpose of taking up the King's Scholars Pond and other sewers at their outlets into the Thames at Terrace the Victoria Street sewer is proposed to be extended through Eaton Square and along the King's Road, Chelsea to Park Walk intercepting all the sewers along its line and terminating at a point where the drainage of Kensington may be brought into it without pumping the lines of sewerage thus described are then all to the west of the Lee and all whether from the shore of the Thames or the northern reaches in Highgate and Hampstead converging to a pumping station or sewage concentration on the east bank of the Lee in West Ham by this new plan then the high level sewer is to cross the Lee but that arrangement is impossible as respects the second district described which is below the level of the Lee so that its course is to be beneath that river a little below where it is crossed by the high level line to dispose of the sewage therefore conveyed from the low level tract there will be a sewer of a depth of 47 feet below the invert of the high level sewer this sewer then at the depth of 47 feet will run to the point of concentration containing the low level sewage at this point of the works in order that the sewage may be collected so as to be disposed of ultimately in one mass it has to be lifted from the low to the high level sewer the invert of the high level sewer will at the lifting or pumping station be 20 feet above the ordnance datum while that of the low level sewer will be 27 feet below the same standard thus a great body of metropolitan sewage comprising among other districts the refuse of the whole city of London must be lifted no less than 47 feet in order to be got rid of along with what has been carried to the same focus by its natural flow the lifting is to be affected by means of steam and the pumping power required has been computed at 1100 horsepower to supply this great mechanical and scientific force there are to be provided two engines each of 550 horsepower with a third engine of equal capacity to be available in case of accident or while either of the other engines might require repairs of some duration the northern sewage of London the middle sex bank of the Thames covered by that division of the capital having been thus brought to a sort of central reservoir or meeting point will be conveyed in two parallel lines of sewerage to the bank of the river Roading being the eastern extremity of Gallien's Reach which is below Willich Reach in the Thames the Roading flows into the Thames at Barking Creek mouth the length of this line will be 4 miles at this point as stated in the report the level of the inverts of the parallel sewers will be 8 feet below high water mark and here it is intended to collect the sewage into a reservoir during the flood tide and discharge the same with the ebb tide immediately after high water and as it is estimated that the reservoir will be completely emptied during the first three hours of the ebb it may be safely anticipated that no portion of the sewage will be returned with the flood tide to within the bounds of the metropolis the whole of the sewage and rainfall then will be thus diverted to one destination instead of being issued into the river through a multiplicity of outlets in every part of the northern shore where the population is dense and will be carried into the Thames at Barking Creek unless as I have intimated a market be found for the sewage when it may be disposed of as is most advantageous all the exceptions to this carrying off will be upon the occurrence of long continued and heavy rains or violent storms when the surplus water will be carried off by some of the present outlets into the river but even on such occasions the first scour or cleansings of the sewage will be conveyed to the main outlet at the river roading the inclination which has been assigned to the whole of the lines of sewers I have described is with some significant exceptions 4 feet per mile or one in 1320 these new sewers are or rather will be calculated to carry off a fall of rain equal to a quarter inch in 24 hours in addition to the average daily flow of sewage Mr. Forster concludes his report I am only able to submit approximately that I estimate the cost of the whole of the lines of sewers the pumping engines and station the reservoir, tidal gates and other apparatus at £1,080,000 this estimate does not include the sums required for the purchase of land and houses which may be needed for the site of the pumping engine house or compensation for certain portions of the lines of sewers as regards the improvements in the sewage on the south side of the Thames the great fever district of the Metropolis and consequently the most important of all and where the drainage is of the worst kind I can be very brief as nothing has been positively determined a somewhat similar system will be adopted on the south side of the Thames where it is proposed to form one main intercepting sewer but owing to the physical configuration of this part of the town none of the water will flow away entirely by gravitation there will be a pumping station on the banks of the Ravensburn to raise the water about 25 feet and a second pumping station to raise the water from the continued sewer in the reservoir in Willich Marsh which is to receive it during the intervals of the tides the waters are to be discharged into the river at the last named point the main sewer on the south side will be of nearly equal colossal proportions for its total length is proposed to be about 13 miles 3 furlongs including the main trunk drain of about 2 miles long and the respective branches the area to be relieved is about proportionate to the length of the drain but the steam power employed will be proportionally greater upon the southern than upon the northern side there are diverse opinions of course as to the practicality and ultimate good working of this plan speculations into which it is not necessary for me to enter Mr. Forster has moreover signed his office adding another to the many changes among the engineers, surveyors and other employees under the Metropolitan Commission a fact little creditable to the management of the commissioners who with one exception may be looked upon as irresponsible End of section 75