The Victoria Embankment
The Thames reshaped to cure the great stink
Running under the Victoria Embankment run one of London's main sewers alongside a part of the underground Circle Line.
Work. on a new sewage system for London began to move ahead after the great stink of 1858 when members of parliament could bear no longer the foul smell from the Thames. At the time hundreds of sewers poured untreated waste direct into the river
Sir Joseph Bazalgette (1819-1891) was the chief engineer who came to the rescue and built the first city-wide sewage system.
The main sewers for London have to be big. Bazalgette's problem was to know where to put them without having to dig up vast areas of the city. His solution was to run the largest sewers along the banks of the Thames and then to cover them over to creat the Embankment.
This solved another problem too because at the same time the city was starting to build its underground railway system. The tracks that are now part of the Circle and District lines could run along the river bank too.
This massive engineering work also helped to save the city from flooding while creating space for gardens, a promenade and new roads.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 20 January 2007
