3-016-969 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

London Main-Drainage Works: view of the outfall of the Northern Drainage at Barking Creek, 1864. Illustration of works on '...the great northern outfall on the Essex side of the Thames, west of the river Roding (generally known as Barking Creek.)...The embankment in the distance...contains buried in it the great outfall sewers through which the entire accumulated drainage of the metropolis north of the Thames finds its way into the river...The extensive works indicated on the right are the tops of the arches which cover the reservoir (twelve acres in extent) in which the sewage is allowed to accumulate during the greater part of the tide, and from which it is allowed to escape by gravitation at or near the time of high water, so that it may be carried down the river with the ebb tide. But it is not intended to allow the sewage to run off with the bottom of the ebb; the sluices will be closed two hours before low water, so that the last of it will have travelled sufficiently far down the river before the tide returns to prevent it again visiting the metropolis. Or if it does come back part of the distance, it will be in combination with such a mass of pure water that it will not be noticeable'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.