Subterranean survey of the Westminster District.

  • London (England). Metropolitan Commission of Sewers.
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Subterranean survey of the Westminster District. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (No. 35.) SUBTERRANEAN SURVEY OF THE $Xtf0tmtn0tr¥ B€0tvtrt. Gentlemen, We have to report that the Subterranean Survey of the close parts of the Westminster District was completed about the middle of January this year. The total length of work in this district amounts to 185 miles completed on the ground; the sewers having been surveyed and levelled, the deposit and smell described, and special reports made out for those parts that were considered dangerous to the public. The total cost of this portion of the work has amounted to about 950Z. The registering and plotting of the work of this district has progressed as far as the present force employed would admit, at an expense of about 120/., but an additional outlay of about 300/. will be required to complete the office work of this District. Awaiting the sheets of the Ordnance Survey, the sewers have not yet been laid down in plan or longitudinal section, and only half of the transverse sections with inclinations and descriptions are yet completed, therefore the present office force will require to be increased; bringing the total expenditure of the Subter¬ ranean Survey to about 50/. per week, instead of the present limit of 40/. By reference to Cruchley’s Map, the sewers which have been surveyed will be readily distinguished. A Pictorial Map is also presented, representing the sewers under three classes, namely: those which are old and decayed, those which are in so rotten and dilapidated a condition as to be in danger of falling, and those which have a very bad or horrible smell; but it is not always that the worst smell accompanies the deepest deposit. The detritus from the macadamised roads frequently forms a kind of grouting in the sewers so hard that it cannot be removed without hand labour. One of the sewers in Whitehall, and another in Spring Gardens, have from three to four feet of this sort of deposit; and another in Eaton Square was found (14) A