London main drainage system
Alcantarillado moderno de Londres
- Date
- 1858-1865 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Joseph Bazalgette (Metropolitan Board of Works)
- People
- 👤 Joseph Bazalgette1819–1891
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A 1,800 km network of brick and Portland cement sewers that intercepted wastewater and carried it out of the city, with steam pumping stations and the Thames Embankments. Built after the 'Great Stink' of 1858, it put an end to cholera in London.
Hamburg (Lindley, 1843) and Paris (Belgrand, 1850s) had earlier systems, but London's was the most complete and influential.
What it led to
- Urban sanitary engineering copied around the world
- Municipal public health and a fall in urban mortality
- The Thames Embankments and new urban planning
- A model of public works funded by metropolitan taxation
Built on
- Flush toilet1596
- Portland cement1824
- Modern flush toilet with S-trap1775-1852
- Early chlorine disinfection and waterborne epidemiology1850-1854
- Steam pumps
- Chadwick's report on sanitary conditions (1842)
- Cistern toilet
Made possible
- Water treatment plants
- Toilet connected to a sewer network
- Sanitary urban planning (Haussmann, Cerdà)