Sir Joseph Bazalette is a much-neglected hero of 19th-century
engineering, yet his achievements can stand comparison with those
of Telford, Brunel or Robert Stephenson. These men's works - mostly
great bridges or railway lines - are still visible in many parts of
England, while those of Bazalgette are all in London, and most of
them - over 80 miles of main sewers the size of railway tunnels,
and over 1000 miles of street sewers - are hidden underground.
Bazalgette's only monument is a small bust set into a wall beneath
Charing Cross Railway Bridge and dwarfed by a nearby, much larger
monument to Brunel. In the 1850s the raw sewage of London's 2
million people seeped untreated through wholly inadequate sewers
into the Thames, where it sloshed up and down with the tides,
slowly decomposing on the muddy foreshores. In the sweltering
summer of 1858 the stink from the polluted river was so offensive
that it drove members of parliament from the chamber of the House
of Commons. As chief engineer for 33 years to the Metropolitan
Board of Works Bazalgette designed and built the great system of
intercepting sewers which continue to take sewage away today. His
vast riverside embankments provided accomodation for low-level
sewers and for roads on the surface, while at the Victoria
Embankment there was also an underground railway and a park at
ground level. He also built several bridges across the river and
laid out numerous new metropolitan thoroughfares, including
Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road. Halliday has done full
justice to this great engineer in a scholarly, readable and
well-illustrated book. Review by FRANCIS SHEPPARD, author of
London: A History (Kirkus UK)
In the sweltering summer of 1858 the stink of sewage from the
polluted Thames was so offensive that it drove Members of
Parliament from the chamber of the House of Commons. Sewage
generated by a population of over 2 million Londoners was pouring
into the river, carried to and fro by the tides. The Times called
the crisis "The Great Stink". Parliament had to act - drastic
measures were required to clean the Thames and improve London's
primitive system of sanitation. The great engineer entrusted with
this enormous task was Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and this book is a
fascinating account of his life and work. Bazalgette's response to
the challenge was to conceive and build the system of intercepting
sewers, pumping stations and treatment works that serves London to
this day. In the process he cleansed the River Thames and helped to
banish cholera, but this was only one of the achievements of his
career. This enthralling history gives a vivid insight into
Bazalgette's achievements and the era in which he worked and lived,
including his heroic battle with politicians, bureaucrats and huge
engineering problems to transform the face and health of the
world's largest city.
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