2-798-818 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Fleet-Street sewer, 1845. Underground waste system in London. 'It appears that although Sewers have been constructed in London for upwards of four centuries, it is only within the last ten or fifteen years that the drainage of the City has been satisfactorily accomplished. Hitherto, it was very defective and imperfect; some of the smaller streets having a Sewer, while the larger thoroughfares, as Cheapside, Ludgate Hill, &c., had none...however, this evil has been remedied; and the Sewerage is now nearly completed...The Sewer of Fleet-street...having been found insufficient to carry off the water, for which it was intended, it became necessary to cut deeper, and construct a new sewer: the greatest requisite depth is 25 feet, which decreases to about 17 feet near Temple Bar...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.