Sewage in 1900 London
In 1900, London's drainage was a vast subject.
To understand it, one must not merely theoretically study the question, but make
a regular expedition, and inspect the Low Level Pumping House in Grosvenor Road,
Pimlico; the Abbey Mills Pumping Station away east beyond the river Lea estuary;
the stations at Barking, fourteen miles from London Bridge, and at Crossness near
Plumstead, where were the outfalls of hundreds of miles of sewers.
There the sewage of London was disposed of.
And what that means may be judged by the fact that the total quantity in the year 1900
was represented by sixty-four billions - that is sixty-four millions of millions
- of gallons.
This enormous amount yielded a precipitate of rather more than two million tons
of sludge, containing 89 per cent. of moisture, which was carried by six special
steamers down the river and deposited in the Barrow Deep, fifteen or twenty miles
below the Nore lightship, on the ebb-tide.
In addition to this, some ten thousand tons of solid matter had to be intercepted
and destroyed by cremation at the outfalls.
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