lsj7.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



171 



Phillips says, tliat the situation of this district, although not quite so airy 

 and salubrious as others in the parish of St. Marvlehone, is far from being 

 close and unhealthy. The houses generally are large, being chiefly third- 

 rate, and narrow streets, courts, and alleys are not numerous. The streets 

 indeed are most of fair width, running in straight lines north and south, and 

 east and west, and communicating with other wide streets ninniiig in those 

 directions; and having therefore currents of air running freely through thera, 

 and keeping up good ventilation. The district is, lurther, seventy-four to 

 eighty-three feet abuve the level of Trinity high-water datura in the Thames. 

 The paving is generally in good condition ; and being well supplied witli gully 

 drains, the surface water is carried off speedily. Nearly all the public ways 

 have sewers running under them. 



The above description appears to he that of a healthy and comfortable 

 district, but Mr. Phillips gives full proof of its real state, an8 of the operat- 

 ing causes. He contrasts it with the neighbouring district of Cavendish- 

 square, anil he finds from the return of the Registrar-General in 181.i, that 

 whereas in Cavendish-square the mortality was one in fifty-nine, in All Souls 

 it was one in twenty-eight, or more than twice as great. The rate of mor- 

 tality per hundred stands thus — 



Cavendish-square .. .. 1'7 



All Souls . . . . . . 3-6 



Excess on latter . . .. 1-9 



The excess of mortality in Ail Souls district is more than equivalent to 

 that of a healthy disti-ict ; so that, literally and truly, the Cavendish-square 

 people have twice the health of those of .411 Souls. The number of per- 

 sons murdered in All Souls district cannot be calculated at less than 2U0 

 persons yearly, whereas it is very likely 500. The average per centage of 

 mortality in the parish of St. iVIarylebone is one in forty-four, or 2 27 per 

 hundred, wiiich average, of course, is made up by such districts as those 

 of All Souls. The fact that the population of All Souls is of a poorer 

 class than that of Cavendish- square, is not enougb to account for the 

 greater mortality of 520 pei'sous yearly, or 10 weekly. 



The cause of this wholesale murder is the neglect of the sewers by the 

 Westminster conimissioners. The sewers appear to have been built be- 

 tween seventy and a hundred years ago, and are all built viith flat paved 

 bottoms aud upright sides, spanned by half-round arches. They vary from 

 4 feet to 5 ft. in. in height, and from 3 feet to 4 feet in width — being of 

 ample size ; but all the junctions are formed at right angles, many of them 

 being broken fiirough the side walls and not made good. The materials 

 used iu their construciiou are the worst of their respective kinds, being 

 place bricks, ai'd moriar composed of chalk lime and loamy pit sand. They 

 are now, Mr. Fhiltips says, *' very much dilapidated, considerable lengths 

 of the side walls being now in ruius, and the remainder failing fast to 

 decay." 



As a fit appendix lo this, Mr. Phillips states that — " It would appear 

 the court of sewers exercised little or no authority over either the arrange- 

 ment or construction of these old sewers ; as the only record respecting 

 them that I can discover in this oRice, is the report of a committee, on view 

 in August, 17tiG, staling that the side wall of a sewer at the north end of 

 Norton street had bulged for a length of ten feet ; that the sewer at the 

 north end of Titchtieldstrcet had been built with place bricks, that the 

 arch had fallen in in several places, and that a great quantity of rubbish 

 was in the sewer." Thus, what the sewers were sixty years ago they are 

 now; and during that period, at least, their neglect by the commissioners 

 has been consistent — which is the most corteous term we can employ. We 

 cannot, however, find that the inhabitants have been exempted during that 

 time from sewers rates — that would be too much to expect. Indeed, w hen 

 me look at the further evidence, we cannot but think that the inhabitants 

 would have been belter without sewers, and that they only paid for being 

 poisoned. In Lisbon, and other unhealthy cities, they have no sewers — 

 and yet the mortality is not higher than in All Souls, Marylebone, where 

 the sewers can only be regarded as what Mr. Phillips in one place calls 

 long and narrow cesspools. 



Mr. Phillips informs us, that for many years past, the inhabitants have 

 romplaioed of these sewers being choked up and stopping their drains, 

 and of noxious exhalations arising in the streets and houses, and that they 

 still continue to do so. Mr. Phillips confirms these complaints — having, 

 in order to acquaint himself with the extent of the evils, on numerous oc- 

 casions passed through the sewers. In doing this, he waded and crawled, 

 sometimes in darkness, through vast accumulations of half-fluid black mat- 

 ter, and his health suffered greatly in consequence. 



It seems, that from 1834 to 1844, 185,058 cubic feet of soil or poiion 



were taken out of the sewers, and carted away, at an average annual cost 

 of £118 9j., — besides contiugeucies, which perhaps doubled the outlay. 

 The relief, however, was but lemporary, aud the disbursement of this 

 trumpery pittauce did not abate the evils. 



These sewers are described as containing, tliroughoul, an immense ac- 

 cumulation of detritus and decayed animal and vegetal)le matter; and they 

 are thus becoming wor^e every day. From their bottoms being fiat aud 

 broad, aud the fall but little, and that irregular, directly they are cleansed 

 they begin choking up again. This, Mr. Phillips says, goes on increasing 

 backwards, until the surface of the soil forms au artificial fall, whereby 

 the water gains sufficient force to prevent any further deposit from taking 

 place. This is in obedience to a natural aud well-known law, and it illus- 

 trates the futility of laying down sewers with too little fall— for if the fall 

 be not given to them, they will make it for themselves. On account of 

 this " grading," as the Yankees call it, of the main sewers, the soil iu 

 many of iheui is now on a level with, and in ulhers it is above, the inoulhs 

 of the house drains, which are in consequence fast choking up, many being 

 stopped already. This is the state of all'airs iu a large and wealthy pa- 

 rish, paying a large sum to the sewers rates— aud certainly williug to pay 

 for health aud life. 



The house drainage, as may be expected, is most defective. Cesspools 

 and common privies abound. Some of the cesspools have no overflow- 

 drains, so that the more flowing portion of the matter soaks away through 



the neighbour 



grouud, choking it with filth, and leaving the solid mat- 



ter to rot. Those having overflow drains are always full of soil, and send 

 forth such pestilential exhalations as almost, in many instances, to prevent 

 any one from goiug near the privies. The side drains from ihe houses are 

 large, and have flat bottoms, so that the small quantity of water flowing 

 from the houses cannot keep them washed out; and Ihey consequently 

 choke up, requiring often to be broken into so that they may be cleansed 

 — thereby causing outlay aud annoyance. As ofteu, however, as Ihey are 

 cleaned, voids are formed, which are again and again filled up. 



Mr. Phillips, we are glad to see, agrees that it is needful that house 

 drainage should be a part of the entire sewerage, — aud says that "Ihe 

 sooner tlie legislature place house drainage and sewerage under the same 

 control, the speedier will be the removal of many aud glaring evils. A 

 skilful combiiiatiuo into one system of house and slreet drainage, conjointly 

 wiih a full aud efficient supply of water, would ensure the removal of filth 

 and waste water into the sewers, nearly as fast as produced, instead uf 

 being detained as at present in the drains and cesspools in and about the 

 houses, for months aud years together." Certainly until this is done, 

 nothing is done ; and uniform sewerage is quite as important as uniform 

 postage. To Ihe wealthy, it is essential that the houses of the poor should 

 be drained, for iu them are the great seats of fever aud disease; — sewerage 

 is not a luxury for an individual, but a duty towards Ihe community ; and 

 as the expenses of communicating with sewers are about Ihe same iu tb« 

 case of a poor house as of a wealthy house, none would demur on the 

 whole charge being thrown upon property. 



The cleansing of the sewers in All Souls district would require the 

 removal of 50,000 cubic feet of soil — and then only lemporary and in- 

 adequate relief would be obtained. The sewers are, indeed, in such a 

 shameful coudition, as is well known to the officers and workmen em- 

 ployed, that when called upon lo make examinations and to work iu them, 

 they show great dislike, from the feeling of danger they have. They are 

 fearful when entering them, at every step they lake, of setting fire either Iu 

 explosive gases generated from the soil or escaped from the gas mains in 

 the streets, or of being overpowered by Ihe heat and foulness of the atmo- 

 sphere, " which, from want of ventilation, causes great dimness of sight, 

 giddiness, and sweating, aud also makes breathing very oppressive, as 

 from experience I can testify," says Mr. Phillips. It is right to observe, 

 that the parish and other authorities have complained of such a slate uf 

 affairs. 



Some curious illustrations of the vigorous administration of the commis- 

 sioners are given incidentally. The great sewer in London-street was 

 rebuilt in 182S, nearly twenty years ago, more than two feet lower than the 

 present one iu Cleveland-street, in anlicipatiuo of the line of outfall being 

 lowered — and it now contains an accumulation of soil nearly four feet in 

 depth. The sewer in Newman-passage was likewise rebuilt in 1829, 

 between two and three feet below that ia Newman-street, for a like reason, 

 and is so full of soil that parties who have obtained leave to lay drains 

 into it have been unable to do so I 



Mr. Phillips justly observes, that no temporary expedient can be applied 

 in such a slate of all'airs, and be proposes to rebuild all the aewers aud (• 



