2-798-822 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Fleet-Street, deepening the sewer, 1845. Workers improving the underground waste system in London, with Temple Bar in the distance. '...the difficulty of keeping open the traffic, so as not to extinguish the "very animated appearance" of Fleet-street, is a work of much difficulty. The cost of the present undertaking, contracted for by Messrs. Ward and Son, of Aldersgate- street, is £2000...There do not appear to be published data from which the total extent of the metropolitan Sewers can be ascertained. The Holbom and Finsbury divisions contain eighty three miles. In addition to these, there are sixteen miles of smaller Sewers, to carry off the surface-water from the streets and roads, and two hundred and fifty-four miles of drains leading from houses to the main Sewers'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.