Great Britons
Maureen Al-kishtaini celebrates the life of London’s saviour, who masterminded the capital’s sewer system.
Sir Joseph Bazalgette
LONDONERS who can remember the state of London and of the Thames about 35 years ago, before the vast undertakings of the Metropolitan Board of Works, will regret the death of the able official Chief Engineer, Sir Joseph Bazalgette.”
So read an 1891 Illustrated London News report on the death of Joseph Bazalgette, who changed the lives of Londoners in the mid-19th century with the introduction of the modern sewer system. So important was he that a monument to him on the Embankment wall reads “Flumini Vincula Posuit” – “He placed chains on the river”.
Bazalgette was of French descent. His grandfather, Jean Louis, came to England in 1775 and established himself as a merchant in Grosvenor Street. He either was or became rich, and on his death left estates in Britain, Ireland, Jamaica and elsewhere. It was his grandson, Joseph, born in Enfield on March 28, 1819, who was destined to become London’s saviour.
Privately educated, he became an articled pupil of Sir John Macneill, one of Thomas Telford’s principal assistants in road and bridge building.
While employed in Ireland as a resident engineer, he visited Holland to gain experience of their highly efficient draining systems.
He became a full member of the Institute of Civil Engineering in 1846
by the age of 27. He was now based in London, in an office on Great George Street, at the time the centre of the engineering profession.
In 1845 he married Maria Kough. They went on to have eleven children over a period of 15 years!
Unfortunately, Joseph’s swift rise in the profession and the pressure of work led to a physical and mental breakdown in 1847 and he was forced to take time off in the countryside.
Despite his ill health he was well-known in the engineering profession to such luminaries as Robert Stevenson – son of famed engineer, George Stevenson – and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
In early 19th-century London most toilet arrangements were primitive and variable, with latrines leaking into alleys, streets, local streams and rivers, causing serious pollution.
This severely impacted the fish and wildlife and no doubt resulted in disgusting sights and smells.
The introduction of the water closet exacerbated the problem. Their popularity led to heavier use and an increase of waste discharged into the very river from where the water supply was obtained.
At times of heavy rain, high water levels meant the sewers were unable to cope, resulting in water and sewage rising through house drains and flooding basements. The cholera epidemic of 1848-9, which killed more than 14,000 people, was a catalyst for change.
An Engineers’ Commission was set up, composed of the most eminent professionals including Robert Stevenson. He delegated Bazalgette and his assistant surveyor, Edward Cresy, to tackle the problem.
A certain degree of success had been achieved by 1852, including an ordnance survey of the Metropolitan area to mark roads, homes and buildings in relation to the Thames, but a unifying organisation was vital.
A Royal Commission recommended the need to create the Metropolitan Board of Works and Bazalgette was asked to be Chief Engineer in 1853.
In his plan, north of the river would be served by three sewers, with two to the south. There would be a network of 82 miles of enclosed underground
brick sewers, and a further 1,100 miles of street sewers.
Before his plan could be approved and implemented a heatwave in 1858 caused an overpowering stench – the Great Stink – to rise from the river, which drove MPS scuttling from their offices. They realised, at long last, that serious action was needed.
The Metropolitan Local Management Amendment Act became law by August that year, giving the Board of Works all that was necessary to carry out the main drainage plans and start the construction of sewers.
They borrowed £3,000,000 – guaranteed by HM Treasury – to be repaid over the next 40 years.
Finally, Bazalgette’s project became a reality with 318,000,000 bricks and 880,000 cubic yards of concrete just for the underground sewers. It was also here that he pioneered the use of quick-drying cement and the highbaked Staffordshire Blue bricks, known for their hard surface and low water absorption.
He was keen that the public should be proud of the works, ensuring that they were not only functional but also objects of beauty. The internal areas at the Crossness sewage works, first opened in 1865, are almost cathedrallike in their stature and ornamentation.
Such a huge undertaking put an immense strain on Bazalgette’s health – so much so that the Board authorised him to “absent himself from his duties for 3 months”.
During this time he must have been gratified by the very positive reactions from the press of the day.
One legacy of Bazalgette’s work is that residents and visitors to London alike can enjoy the Thames Embankment, now the site of attractive and tree-lined walkways. Few people realise that their initial purpose was to house the main sewers as part of Bazalgette’s drainage plan, and also to carry service pipes for gas, water and, eventually, electricity.
Construction on the Victoria Embankment began in 1865. It was opened on July 13, 1870 by the Prince of Wales, in a ceremony attended by 24 ambassadors, many MPS and around 10,000 members of the public.
So, while all of Bazalgette’s projects were vital to the health and well-being of Londoners, it was probably the Victoria Embankment that made him a household name at that time.
His standing in the world of engineering continued to rise, and in 1882 he was elected as President of the Institute of Engineering.
His final project was Blackwall Tunnel, to facilitate crossing the Thames. He proposed three boxes to separate vehicular traffic, horse-drawn traffic and pedestrians, estimating that it would take 7 years to complete.
When the London County Council took over from the Board of Works in 1889, however, Bazalgette retired, dying two years later at his home in Wimbledon, and sadly never seeing the completion of his river crossing.
Many of the obituaries of him printed in the national newspapers emphasised his enduring legacy.
As if to prove this point, last year Bazalgette was named “Captain Sanitation” in the Institution of Civil Engineers’ Invisible Superheroes exhibition, part of the celebration of their 200th anniversary.
A fitting title for such a man.