By: Susan-Marie Cronkite, PhD.
Sir Joseph Bazalgette (1819 – 1891) was a civil engineer in London, England during the Victorian period. In some ways, he was an ‘accidental’ Environmental Health hero, but through his work designing and building the first large, comprehensive sewer system in London, he saved hundreds of thousands of lives. The sewers changed the face of London; they took raw sewage out of London’s streets, allowed Londoners access to clean water and virtually eliminated cholera outbreaks. The effects of his work are still felt today as Bazalgette’s sewers still serve London and protect the health of her population.
Living conditions in the Victorian period in England were astoundingly appalling. People, especially the lower classes, lived in unimaginable filth. In the 19th century, London’s population rose to upwards of 2 million people, all crammed into a small number (several thousand) of households. Houses, even the houses of the wealthy, had few sanitation facilities; households had at most, a cesspit under the ground floor where wastes of all types were dumped and maybe a private, or communal, ‘privy’ (pit toilet). Many houses had no sanitation facilities at all, with waste being dumped into open ditches, courtyards, passageways and streets.
London, itself, did have a sewage and drainage system. The system was, however, old (started under Henry VIII) and mainly designed to handle rain water and very small quantities of sewage generated by a much smaller population [1]. Human waste was, instead, supposed to be deposited into the household cesspit. Once the cesspit became full, ‘Nightsoil men’ (the Victorian equivalent of a Septic Tank Pumping Contractor) removed the waste (for a fee), carted it into the countryside and there sold the waste for fertilizer [2]. When the population of London was small, this system worked reasonably well. Once the Industrial Revolution blossomed, the population levels exploded, the demand for ‘nightsoil’ bottomed out (guano imported from South America could be purchased more cheaply than waste carted from London ! [3]) and a new sanitation facility — the water closet (flush toilet) — became popular the sewer systems were simply overwhelmed. The water closet was a grand invention – an interior device that flushed away human wastes directly — however, the large quantities of water needed to remove the waste with each flush also flushed out the cesspits into the storm sewers (and into basements, courtyards, streets, neighboring houses…).
A further problem was that all the untreated effluent moved from the city straight into the Thames, the river that bisects the city of London, and into several other tributary rivers including the Fleet, the Holbourne, the Wandle, the West Bourne and the Ravensbourne. These rivers were the lifeblood of London. The Thames was the economic center (international sea port and all the concurrent supporting jobs), the center of the new Industrial Revolution, the repository of all the junk and wastes of a huge city AND the main source of London’s cooking, cleaning and drinking water. This problem was further exacerbated by tides; much of London sat nearly level with, or below, her rivers, so during high tides, these rivers were backed up creating a seething, undulating soup of sewage. The sewage backup was so overwhelming that a report to the Royal Commission in 1847 noted that the King’s Mills Sewer had 10 years’ accumulation of sewage [4].
The public health consequences of the uncontrolled sewage were astronomical. Overall life expectancy for a poor, urban dweller was 25 to 29 years of age [5]. Cholera was rampant in London, with up to 20,000 people dying per year. Typhoid also arrived in London in 1832, affecting another 14,000 individuals per year [6]. One of the clearest statements on the conditions of the times is found in the 1847 report by John Phillips, a surveyor of the Westminster Court of Sewers. He researched and presented the first ever report on London’s sewer system to the Royal Commission…
“I am of the opinion, that not one half of the entire filth produced in the metropolis finds its way into the sewers, but is retained in the cesspools and drains in and about the houses, where it lies decomposing, giving off noxious effluvia and poisonous sulphuretted hydrogen and other gases which constantly infect the atmosphere of such houses from top to bottom, and which, of course, the inhabitants are constantly breathing… There are hundreds, I may say thousands, of houses in this metropolis which have no drainage whatever, and the greater part of them have stinking, overflowing cesspools, and there are also hundreds of streets, courts and alleys that have no sewers; and how the drainage and filth are cleaned away and how the miserable inhabitants live in such places it is hard to tell. In pursuance of my duties, I have visited very many places where filth was lying scattered about the rooms, vaults, cellars, areas, and yards, so thick and so deep that it was hardly possible to move for it. I have also seen in such places human beings living and sleeping in sunk rooms with filth from overflowing cesspools exuding through and running down the walls and over the floors. It is utterly hopeless to expect to meet with either civilization, benevolence, religion or virtue, in any shape, where so much filth and wretchedness abounds The effects of the effluvia, stench and poisonous gases constantly evolving from these foul accumulations were apparent in the haggard, wan and swarthy countenances and enfeebled limbs of the poor creatures whom I found residing over and amongst these dens of pollution and wretchedness…. Morality, and the whole economy of domestic existence is outraged and deranged by so much suffering and misery [7].”
London’s social reformers were not ignorant of the condition of the sewers and the appalling living conditions of the masses, but they were unable to make any significant changes. London did not have a unified body in charge of the sewer systems. There were, in fact, 8 separate boards – the Commissioners of Sewers — each in charge of a specific section of the sewer system, and each trying their best not to change the system because of the money they could save [8]. Victorian social reformers, using the 1847 report by John Phillips and the 1854 work of John Snow on cholera, finally managed to convince those in power to change the system and create a single authority. The eight Commissions of Sewers were abolished, eventually superseded in 1855 by the single Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) [9]. Joseph Bazalgette was employed as the Chief Engineer of the MBW in 1856.
London’s sewage problems finally became a central issue in 1858, the summer of “The Great Stink”. The summer was particularly hot, water levels were low and the Thames was so polluted with stagnant sewage that even the House of Commons was affected. Emergency procedures were put in place; curtains soaked in chloride of lime were put up over all the windows of the House, and the government debated either to take a hiatus or to relocate to Hampton Court, Oxford or St. Albans. Heavy rains ended the problem, but a House of Commons select committee was appointed to report on the current state of the sewage system of London and Parliament put through a law in a record 18 days to allocate funds to solve the sewage issue [10].
Joseph Bazalgette was selected to investigate the current state of London’s sewers and to suggest a solution. Bazalgettes’ proposal was accepted and he began work in 1858. It was a massive undertaking that took decades to complete. The project included the construction of 83 miles (134km) of new underground brick main sewers and 1,100 miles (1,800km) of new street sewers [11]. Existing sewers were joined into the new system and all effluent was moved downstream from London and dumped in to the Thames. Four huge pumping stations, massive steam-run, iron marvels of the age, were required to move sewage from the deeper sewers up to the level of the river. This sewage system was officially opened by the Prince of Wales in 1864 when he started one of the great pumps at the Southern Outfall Works (aka Crossness pumping station). The opening was a grand affair, attended by up to 600 ‘persons of rank’ [12]…
“…the Royal party landed at the Northern Outfall, at Barking, and after a brief inspection of the works at that place resumed their passage to the Southern Outfall at Crossness, where the general company had already assembled… they were conducted over the works; after which the Engineer (Bazalgette) explained the general principles and engineering details… the four pumping engines were then successively set in motion by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, which completed the opening of the works…the company then partook of luncheon.” [13]
The system was not perfect — untreated sewage still entered the Thames and did so until the first river water treatment plants opened in 1900 [14, 15] – but the construction of the sewer system changed the life of people in London. Sewage no longer ran down the streets, killing outbreaks of cholera and typhoid virtually disappeared and average life expectancy slowly increased. Bazalgette was knighted in 1875 for his service to London and her population.
References:
[1] London’s Sanitation Problems, The Crossness Pumping Station. On-line. Available: http://www.crossness.ork.uk/ . Cited 2009 18 November.
[2] The Great Stink, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. On-line. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink. Cited 2009 18 November.
[3] Ibid. Cited 2009 18 November.
[4] London’s Sanitation Problems, The Crossness Pumping Station. On-line. Available: http://www.crossness.ork.uk/ . Cited 2009 18 November.
[5] Daunton, Martin. London’s Great Stink and Victorian Urban Planning: Death in the City, BBC History. On-line. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/social_conditions/victorian_urban_planning_01.shtml. Cited 2009 18 November.
[6] The Great Stink, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. On-line. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink. Cited 2009 18 November.
[7] John Phillips (surveyor), from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. On-line. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Phillips_(surveyor). Cited 2009 18 November.
[8] London’s Sanitation Problems, The Crossness Pumping Station. On-line. Available: http://www.crossness.ork.uk/ . Cited 2009 18 November.
[9] Metropolitan Commission of Sewers, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. On-line. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Commission_of_Sewers. Cited 2009 18 November.
Metropolitan Board of Works, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. On-line. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Board_of_Works. Cited 2009 18 November.
[10] Daunton, Martin. London’s Great Stink and Victorian Urban Planning: Death in the City, BBC History. On-line. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/social_conditions/victorian_urban_planning_01.shtml. Cited 2009 18 November.
The Great Stink, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. On-line. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink. Cited 2009 18 November.
[11] Joseph Bazalgette, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. On-line. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bazalgette. Cited 2009 19 November.
[12] Smith, Denis, PhD, Msc, DIC, CEng. Sir Joseph Bazalgette and “The Big Stink”; an excerpt from the Society’s Transactions. The Newcomen Society for the study of the history of engineering and technology. On-line. Available: http://www.newcomen.com/excerpts/bazalgette.htm
The Crossness Pumping Station, History: The Official Opening. On-line. Available: http://www.crossness.org.uk/. Cited 2009 19 November.
[13] Smith, Denis, PhD, Msc, DIC, CEng. Sir Joseph Bazalgette and “The Big Stink”; an excerpt from the Society’s Transactions. The Newcomen Society for the study of the history of engineering and technology. On-line. Available: http://www.newcomen.com/excerpts/bazalgette.htm. Cited 2009 19, November.
[14] Sewage Works and Sewage Farms. Section 1: Background, Department of the Environment Industry Profile. On-line. Available: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:hfQ85AAWiJgJ:publications.environment-agency.gov.uk/pdf/SCHO0195BJLD-e-e.pdf%3Flang%3D_e+London+history+sewage+treatment+works&cd=29&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&client=firefox-a.
[15] In the UK sea dumping of untreated sewage was outlawed in 1997; since that date, all sewage must be treated to set standards before any type of disposal. Rose George, The Wasteland, Slate online magazine, April 24-27, 2006. On-line. Available: http://www.sewerhistory.org/articles/whregion/slate_london_sewers.htm.
Further Reading:
Guide to the Sanitary Reform of London: The Working Collection of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, ca. 1785-1969. OAC (Online Archive of California). On-line. Available: http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/ft3×0nb131
Halliday, S. (1999) The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis. Stroud: Sutton Publishing Limited.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Citation #14 is a link to the website of the city of London, Ontario, Canada. The information refers to that city’s water treatment facilities, not those of London, England. What an oversight!
Hello a.s.
OK — we feel very stupid !! Thanks for catching this and letting us know. All fixed now.