John Phillips (surveyor) - London in The 1840s

London in The 1840s

By the 1840s, London’s population numbered over two million, living in several hundred thousand households. An awareness of the need for sewerage reform and development led to the first comprehensive study of the metropolis for the purpose of planning sewerage improvements.

The conditions in London resembled those of most cities of two hundred years ago. By that time nearly every residence had a cesspool which collected and stored all house wastes beneath its first floor. With cesspools overflows, failure of proper drainage and the contamination of drinking water, epidemics and lingering illnesses became common. Fires and explosions due to methane build up in unventilated cesspools were just as frequent. Such conditions are vividly described in the following account from 1849, when workers entering to examine cesspools with oil lamps triggered sudden blasts:

"Explosions occurred in two separate locations where the men had the skin peeled off their faces and their hair singed. In advancing toward Southampton, the deposit deepens to 2 feet 9 inches, leaving only 1 foot 11 inches of space in the sewer. At about 400 feet from the entrance, the first lamp went out and, 100 feet further on, the second lamp created an explosion and burnt the hair and face of the person holding it."