"The original Bazalgette sewer was the correct solution to the wrong problem, as, at the time it was ordered to be built, the majority medical opinion was that illnesses were caused by miasma from effluent, which was thought to transmit contagious diseases. It was only after the Great Stink of 1858 that the government finally acted to get rid of the smell by ordering the construction of the huge sewer network."
"Even though John Snow made his famous discovery that it was polluted water, not bad air, that made people ill, it took until after the Bazalgette sewers were finished before medical opinion changed from the bad-air miasma theory to one that accepted that pollutants in the water itself were causing illnesses. So, by sheer fluke, the sewers were the correct solution - even if they didn't know it at the time."
The Thames embankment has been widening as super sewer building sites are converted into new public riverside spaces. Bulges in the embankment mark shafts where the Victorian sewer system connects to the deeper Thames Tideway tunnel. Bazalgette’s 19th-century sewers were built under miasma theory but inadvertently solved waterborne disease and later proved effective against river pollution. The combined sewer system overflows into the Thames during heavy rain, so a new interceptor sewer now diverts those overflows away from the river. Interceptor tops are being opened as landscaped public areas. Tyburn Quay near Embankment station features floodable lower terraces and a radar-key public toilet.
Read at ianVisits
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]