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King Charles III

Prince Charles marks 150th Anniversary of London’s Sewer Network

The Prince of Wales visited Lee Tunnel and Abbey Mills Pumping Station to mark the 150th anniversary of London’s sewer network in London on Wednesday.

London has outgrown the 150-year old system created by Joseph Balzagette. A system created initially for two million people has now tripled in size, and now 39 million tonnes of untreated sewage mixed with rainwater is expelled into the River Thames from overloaded treatment works and combined sewer overflows.

Prince Charles, always the hands on Royal, descended 75 metres down to the new Lee Tunnel for an update on how Thames Water is confronting the project. Charles met the project team and apprentices.

The Prince went on to the historic Abbey Mills Pumping Station and attended a reception for supporters of Thames Water and the charity WaterAid, of which he is President.

In commemorating the completion of construction of the Lee Tunnel, Prince Charles followed in the footsteps King Edward VII. Edward, who as Prince of Wales, launched the sewage network that changed the health of London’s residents in 1865 following the infamous ‘Great Stink’.

The £635 million Lee Tunnel will be fully operational in December 2015. The engineering marvel will now capture an average of 16 million tonnes of sewage a year from the single most polluting combined sewage overflow in London.

Designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette and recognised for its extraordinary architecture and ornate interior, Abbey Mills Pumping Station played a significant role in modernising London’s water and wastewater network. It helped to eliminate diseases like cholera that had plagued the population for decades.

WaterAid operates in 26 countries with some of the world’s poorest communities, delivering safe water and sanitation, and encouraging good hygiene practices.

To mark the 150th anniversary of London’s sewage network, WaterAid is inviting the public to help in conveying the story of water and sanitation in the UK with its Big History Project.

Prince Charles has been President of Water Aid since 1991.

So who was Joseph Balzagette?

Sir Joseph Bazalgette memorial, Thames Embankment.

Sir Joseph Bazalgette memorial, Thames Embankment.

Bazalgette became Chief Engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1856. Having held this post for over 30 years, he altered London’s landscape both above and below ground in numerous ways.

His greatest accomplishment, however, is building London’s modern sewage system, the same one that serves London 150 years later.

Bazalgette sought improvements to London’s sewage works during the 1840s. As great of an idea as it was, there was a problem keeping up with the sewage flowing into the street and worst of all into the Thames.

When the “Great Stink” came about in the summer of 1858, life in London was utterly unbearable. It got to the point Parliament was unable to function, so they passed a bill to allow Bazalgette to create a proper solution to end the malodorous problem plaguing the capital city.

Bazalgette and his team went to work, creating the new system in phases, which took until the early 1870s. He was smart enough to take the average time an adult would visit the lavatory and multiplied it by the population count. One of his engineers decided to double it for good measure, creating a larger diameter for the pipes and allowing for the future increase in population.

The main line was built parallel to the Thames to carry the sewage downstream. The river thus required embankments from Chelsea to Blackfriars, creating the Albert, Victoria and Chelsea Embankments.

The construction of the sewer system also allowed for the creation of the Metropolitan District Line, now District/Circle Line.

It also gave the city the Embankment Gardens that are still here today.

Featured photo credit: Building a Legacy of Peace’, a Service marking the second anniversary of the tragic murder of Jimmy Mizen at Westminster Cathedral. via photopin (license)