Southern Outfall Sewer

Bazalgette's Northern Outfall Sewer under construction

The Southern Outfall Sewer is a major sewer taking sewage from the southern area of central London to Crossness in south-east London. Flows from three interceptory sewers combine at Deptford and then run under Greenwich, Woolwich, Plumstead and across Erith marshes. The Outfall Sewer was designed by Joseph Bazalgette after an outbreak of cholera in 1853 and "The Big Stink" of 1858.

Until this time, central London's drains were built primarily to cope with rain water, and the growing use of flush toilets frequently meant these became overloaded, flushing mud, shingle, sewage and industrial effluent into the River Thames. Bazalgette's London sewerage system project included the construction of intercepting sewers north and south of the Thames; the Northern Outfall Sewer diverts flows away from the Thames north of the river.

South of the river, three major interceptor sewers were constructed:

The high-level sewer starts at Herne Hill, and heads eastward under Peckham and New Cross to a pumping station at Deptford.
The middle-level sewer starts on Balham Hill and runs under Clapham High Street, under Stockwell and Brixton, through Camberwell to Deptford.
The low-level sewer begins in Putney and runs through Battersea, Vauxhall, and under the Old Kent Road and Bermondsey to Deptford.^[1]

The covered sewer forms the southern boundary of Thamesmead and has been landscaped as an elevated footpath called the Ridgeway (similar to The Greenway built over the Northern Outfall Sewer).

References

↑ Trench, R. and Hillman, E. (1984) London under London: A Subterranean Guide (London: John Murray), pp.75–76.

External links

Crossness Pumping Station

Water supply and sanitation in London

Companies	Affinity Water Anglian Water Essex and Suffolk Water Sutton and East Surrey Water Thames Water

Major infrastructure	Supply infrastructure Sewerage system Northern Outfall Sewer Southern Outfall Sewer

Thames Water

History	John Backhouse Joseph Bazalgette Edmund Colthurst Great Stink London sewerage system London water supply Metropolitan Board of Works Metropolitan Water Board Hugh Myddelton William Chadwell Mylne New River Company New River John Snow (physician) 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak William Webster

Major projects	Abingdon Reservoir Thames Tideway Scheme, including Thames Tideway Tunnel and Lee Tunnel Thames Water Desalination Plant Thames Water Ring Main

Categories	Thames Water Reservoirs Predecessor companies

Coordinates: 51°30.3′N 0°8.4′E / 51.5050°N 0.1400°E / 51.5050; 0.1400

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Southern Outfall Sewer

See also

References

External links