Welcome to the first in an intermittent series about the architects of London. Not all of them will be architects in the literal sense, but they are architects nonetheless. Let us start with Sir Joseph Bazalgette.

Joseph Bazalgette? Who was he? What did he build?

Joseph Bazalgette was the Victorian architect of the London sewer system, constructed between 1859 and 1875, most of which still serves London to this day. He also masterminded the Victoria, Chelsea, and Albert Embankments, as well as some London streets that are as iconic as it gets.

The sewers of London: for a city that was drowning in filth

Building a sewer system for London was a colossal endeavour – and an urgent necessity.

Until the mid-19^th century, most of London human waste was collected in cesspits, which frequently overflowed, or leak toxic waste into their surroundings.

When emptied, their content was either dumped straight into the Thames, or into the nearest Thames tributary. Then it all would flow out of London, sluggishly, only to be replaced with more waste.

Add to that the industrial waste from factories and slaughterhouses: the River Thames was a lifeless, toxic cesspool, unable to sustain fish or wildlife. A “pestiferous and typhus breeding abomination“, wrote one journalist. “A Stygian pool, reeking with ineffable and intolerable horrors“, said Prime Minister Disraeli.

London did have a rudimentary sewer system, but it was piecemeal, fragmented and ineffective. Some Thames tributaries had become de facto open sewer. Probably the most (in)famous of these is the River Fleet. After two centuries as an open sewer, much of the Fleet was bricked over by the early 19^th century, in an attempt to control the stench and disease. Fleet Street still runs over parts of it – and yes, it’s still in use today.

To make matter worse, flushing toilets, popularized by the Great Exhibition of 1851, predated the construction of the sewer system and only exacerbated the problem.

At the same time, for many Londoners, especially the poor, the Thames and its tributaries were the source of drinking water. You can probably imagine how catastrophic the consequences of that were….

Cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery were rampant. Typhoid fever caused thousands of deaths per year; one cholera outbreak in the mid-1850s killed well over 10,000 people.

With the explosive growth of London population during the Industrial revolution, this situation became intolerable. The stench alone was unbearable. No wonder snuffing tobacco was so popular! It was all the more terrifying because the Victorians believed that contagious diseases were caused by miasma (their name for contaminated air).

In the summer of 1858, the smell from the Thames was so overwhelming that “The Great Skink”, as it came to be known, pushed MPs in Westminster to call for action. They turned to the newly created Metropolitan Board of Works (London’s first attempt at a local government, created in 1855) and demanded a solution, pronto.

The Metropolitan Board of Works chief engineer was Joseph Bazalgette. He drew up the plans for an extensive network of underground sewers that would flow into two main outfalls, one north of the river at Beckton and one on the southern bank at Crossness, well away from the boundaries of Victorian London. From there, sewage would be released into the Thames estuary and – eventually – be carried away by the tide.

The Bazalgette sewer system was a Victorian marvel, with some extraordinary numbers:

• 1,800 km of street sewers
• 132 km of interconnecting sewers (more than 3 times the width of Greater London!)
• 400 draughtsmen to draw the plans
• 318 millions bricks
• over 3000 workers to lay the bricks
• more than 200 Olympic swimming pools worth of cement (512 thousand cubic meters)
• And 16 years in the making, a cost of around £450 million in today’s money.

The impact on public health was incalculable.

A few years after its completion, the disposal of raw sewage needed tweaking, because of a horrific accident in the Thames Estuary in 1878.

A pleasure steamer, the Princess Alice, collided with a coal carrier ship, downstream from the two outfalls – just one hour after 75 millions gallons of raw sewage had been released into the river. 650 people drowned in the toxic waste. Yikes – talk about a shitty way to die! (Sorry, couldn’t resist…)

After that accident, a fleet of sludge boats was commissioned to dump sewage sludge at sea, further from the Thames mouth, a practice that would last until as late as 1998. (1998! Can you believe that!!?)

Thankfully, in recent years, sewage treatment has improved significantly, reducing both waste volume and toxicity.

The ornate pumping stations: Abbey Mills & Crossness

Abbey Mills Pumping Station

As part of the sewer network, several pumping stations were built where gravity needed a helping hand. The most famous of those, and arguably the most beautiful, is Abbey Mills Pumping Station in East London, built in a Byzantine style featuring ornate brickwork and elaborate ironwork.

The original Victorian station is no longer in regular operational use, replaced by a newer pumping station on the same site in the 1990s.

Abbey Mills is not open to the public, but the original pumping station can sometimes be visited during Open House, if you get lucky (entrance is via ballot, so it’s basically a lottery.) Alternatively, check out this video on the Open House YouTube channel: Abbey Mills Pumping station.

Crossness Pumping Station

Crossness Pumping Station, which stands south of the river, to the east, on the very outskirts of London even today, is another incredible build. It’s sometimes called the cathedral on the marshes, or the cathedral of sewage, and deservedly so.

Like Abbey Mills, Crossness Pumping Station was designed by Sir Bazalgette, together with consultant engineer Charles Driver. It was built a few years before Abbey Mills, opening in 1865.

It’s nothing short of majestic, a grand Gothic masterpiece, with intricate cast iron and elaborate architectural details. They liked their ornamentation, the Victorians!

And then you see the 4 massive beam engines that were used to pump the sewage… an awe-inspiring sight.

Like Abbey Mills, the original Victorian pumping station on the Crossness site was decommissioned in the 1950s, and replaced by newer facilities. The beam engines – too huge to be moved or dismantled – were left to decay. Until, that is, a dedicated group of volunteers lovingly brought one of them back to life.

And, unlike Abbey Mills, Crossness pumping station is open to visitors, and makes for a thoroughly enjoyable day out, especially as you get to experience one fully restored beam engine in action.

The story of the Embankment(s)

Joseph Bazalgette is also responsible for the Embankments – yes, plural, because there are 3 of them: the Victoria Embankment, the Chelsea Embankment (together known as the Thames Embankment), and the Albert embankment.

The Victoria Embankment

The Victoria Embankment runs from the Palace of Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge and was built between 1865 and 1870 under direction from Sir Bazalgette.

The reclaimed land from the bank of the Thames was used to run sewer pipes, as well as the tracks for the District Railway (precursor to the District Line). Above ground, it also created Victoria Embankment Gardens.

The Chelsea Embankment

The Chelsea Embankment runs the other side from Westminster, from Millbank to the Cadogan Pier in Chelsea. It was built between 1868 and 1874, and it, too, incorporates sewer pipes (no rail tracks in this one, though).

The Albert Embankment

Like all good blockbusters, the Embankment was a trilogy. The third in the series is the Albert Embankment, which was created on the other side of the Thames, between Westminster Bridge and Tinworth Street, between 1865 and 1868. Unlike the Victoria and Chelsea embankments, it does not incorporate any sewers and was not built under the immediate direction of Joseph Bazalgette. But like the Thames Embankment, it did reclaim some land from the Thames, and there’s a garden, too, at its most southerly point: Albert Embankment Gardens. It’s not quite as nice as Victoria Embankment gardens, though.

Iconic streets and bridges

And if that wasn’t enough, Sir Bazalgette also laid the groundwork for the reconstruction of Hammersmith Bridge and contributed to the design of Putney Bridge and Battersea Bridge.

He also played a role in the construction of Northumberland Avenue (which linked Trafalgar Square to the Victoria Embankment), Queen Victoria Street (which linked the Victoria Embankment to The City), and Shaftesbury Avenue (the heart of the area of London known as the West End).

The Bazalgette legacy

Sir Joseph Bazalgette died on 15 March 1891, at the age of 71. He passed away at his home in Wimbledon, London, only two years after his retirement. He was buried in St. Mary’s Churchyard, Wimbledon, in the family mausoleum of the Bazalgette family.

If you find yourself by Embankment tube station, cross to the other side of the bridge, and there you’ll see a memorial to that most amazing man…

And if you’ve ever wondered why Embankment tube station is called Embankment… now you know…

So there you have it: the legacy of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, unsung London hero. Did anybody do more in Victorian times to shape London in such a lasting way?

Want more London history? Why not check these fine posts: the story of Wilton’s Music hall, inside 4 Princelet Street, or discover Trinity Buoy Wharf. Oh, and don’t miss Lord North Street in Westminster!