All language subtitles for BBC.Seven.Wonders.Of.The.Industrial.World.4of7.The.Sewer.King.DivX6.AC3-MVGroup

BBC Seven Wonders Of The Industrial World

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Ladies and Gentlemen
step inside and see the marvel,

such enormity, such immensity,
such unimaginable monstrosity.

There has never been anything like it
in the whole of human history.

Behold, London,
the world`s first megalopolis.

The biggest, the richest, the most densely
populated city on the face of the earth.

The teaming streets Ladies and
Gentlemen, the thralls he knew.

The population of London
more than doubled in fifty years.

All are drawn in to this vast vortex.

London has more lrish than Dublin,
more Catholics than Rome.

But this huge wave of humanity
brought a crisis

that threatened to engulf the capital.

A torrent of human excrement
clogged London`s arteries.

The foul air was not fit to breathe.

ln its wake had come a terrifying
new disease and thousands were dying.

London stood on the brink of an abyss
as the city drowned in its own sewage.

But one man believed he had the answer.

An unknown engineer with
a vision of a subterranean world.

He would undertake the largest
construction in England.

lt would become a life time struggle,

against a Victorian world blind to his
vision for the first modern metropolis.

The name of that unknown
engineer Joseph Bazalgette.

ln 1848 fear stalked
the greatest city in the world.

An unknown unseen killer
was moving through the metropolis.

This was the time of cholera, it was the
worst outbreak of disease in the capital,

since the great plague.

The disease was also a mystery,

no one knew of a cure,
no one understood the cause.

But there was a clue.

Cholera had struck as London`s
sanitation system was collapsing.

When the city stank of human waste

people were starting
to suspect there had to be a link.

The whole of the Thames is a fermenting
sewer full of opaque brown fluid.

The foulness could scarcely be born.

Around the bridges
the feculence rolls up in clouds

so thick the stench of
excrement raids the city.

lt brings dysentery,
typhoid and most deadly of all cholera.

We pride ourselves for our industry,
our empire, our civilisation.

But without sanitation
we are little more than beasts.

Trying to find an answer

to London`s crisis were the men of
the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers.

Well meaning but ineffectual they
argue, bicker, resign and regroup,

but agree on nothing,
and nothing was done.

Then in August 1849 they made
an unusually inspired decision.

The appointed a new assistant
surveyor Joseph Bazalgette.

Where would you suggest.

His first task was to assess
London`s old sewers.

These had been designed
only to carry off surface water.

The sewage was dumped in a cesspit
or carted away at night.

But with London doubling
in size the old system could not cope.

And a new invention, the water closet,
was making matters even worse.

The contents poured
in to the old drains.

This created an unforeseen and
utterly repulsive new problem.

The old drainage system grew around
London`s rivers and streams.

As the city grew the water
courses were covered,

this lies out the root
of our present problem.

These culverts and conduits were
intended to carry away rain water.

Not an unremitting deluge
of detritus and sewage.

When there are heavy rains

these sewers are unable to store
the increased volume of sewage,

which then rises back up the house
drains and floods the basement.

The sewage backed up,

it seeped through the floor boards
and the poor took the brunt of it.

ln desperation fifty four people
wrote a letter to The Times.

Sir.

Sir.

May we beg and beseech
your protection and power.

We ask sir as it may be living
in a wilderness so far

as the rest of London
knows anything of us

as the rich and great people
live in muck and filth.

The stench of a gully
hole is disgusting.

We all of us suffer
and many of us are ill.

We are looking like pigs and it
`aint fair, we should be so ill treated.

The Sewer Commissioners
in Soho Square take no notice

whatsoever about our complaint

The sewer commissioners
in Soho Square did take notice,

but they simply had no idea what to do.

So they also turned to The Times and
appealed to their readers for ideas.

Bazalgette had
the unenviable task of sorting

through a hundred and
thirty seven madcap replies.

Here is a proposal from
the prominent newsagent Mr W H Smith.

He has the novel idea of carrying the
sewage out of London on railway trains.

This proposes the construction of a
tunnel beneath the Thames, lengthways.

Some l fear have proven to be
the work of cranks and crackpots.

But l am not downhearted.

Bazalgette cut his teeth as an engineer
in the heyday of railway expansion.

But his obsession had
almost cost him his life.

lt`s only two years
since his terrible illness.

His efforts on the railways
made his so poorly

that we had to retire to the countryside
for a year while he recovered.

Since the age of seventeen he`s
been occupied with his engineering.

But he`s so little
time for anything else.

He loves his children dearly,
but he sees them so rarely.

l sometimes think there`s a more
glamorous position than being in sewers

but he`s very dedicated.

Of all one hundred and thirty seven
plans not one offers an affordable,

practical means of getting
the sewage out of London.

Londoners are dying in their thousands yet
still there is no agreement on a plan.

All the while the
cholera was spreading.

Many suspected that the smell of sewage
alone could strike a man dead.

They were convinced that the thick fog
hanging over the city spread the disease.

They called it the miasma.

This was believed by Florence Nightingale
and other leading health authorities,

amongst them
Edwin Chadwick and William Farr.

The miasma is all about us, it rises
from the breath of t millions of people.

From sewers and cess pools,
graves and slaughter houses.

ln one season it carries cholera,
in another scarletina,

influenza, measles, small pox.

For centuries it`s hovered over
London like an angel of death.

lt is simple, all smell is disease.

Edwin Chadwick was so certain that
the disease was caused by smell

that he committed a terrible error.

We are going to make sure

we remove this smell from London
by flushing the sewers in to the river.

lf we can control the smell
we will control the cholera.

What does that mean for
ordinary people Mr Chadwick?

So Chadwick flushed out the old sewers.

Over night years of accumulated
waste were washed

and scoured straight in to the Thames,

but it didn`t help,
the death toll continued to rise.

The disease struck its victims
with devastating speed.

The first symptom of cholera
was acute diarrhoea.

Severe dehydration followed
causing the liver to weaken.

The skin turned a greyish blue colour.

Death often occurred within
forty eight hours of onset.

The graveyards started to overflow.

ln the East end there were riots because
the poor could not even bury their dead.

Corpses often had to be kept for weeks.

Families ate and slept
next to their dead.

The bodies surrounded
by onions to hide the smell.

We`re living in an age
where child mortality is commonplace.

But why should it be so?

My mother lost four children, two
of my sisters and two baby brothers.

Her grief at times is almost
too much to bear.

Now l fear for my own children.

Cholera is ruthless and random.

There are children dying needlessly
throughout this great city.

Cleansing London is the most
pressing concern of the day yet

still parliament will grant us
neither the money

nor the power to accomplish the job.

Before the epidemic ended
in the winter of 1849

more than fourteen thousand
Londoners had died.

And still no one
understood the disease.

No one knew what caused it or how
to stop it spreading should it return.

What is cholera?

ls it a fungus, an insect,
a miasma, an electrical disturbance,

a deficiency of ozone, a morbid
off-scouring of the intestinal canal?

We know nothing.

We are at sea
in a whirlpool of conjecture.

Cholera had defeated the finest
minds of Victorian medicine.

But in Soho one doctor was gathering

evidence for a new theory
on the cause of the disease.

John Snow, pioneer in the fields
of anaesthetics and epidemiology,

a man ahead of his time.

A drunkard.

Snow was the first
to doubt the miasma theory.

The proliferation of disease is
generally ascribed to noxious exhalation.

But how can that be
when its distribution is so uneven?

During the recent epidemic

the dwellings on this side of the street
suffered fearful devastation,

whereas on the dwellings on the other
side there was but one fatal case.

Yet their occupants
breathe the same air.

Surely if cholera was caused by miasma
both sides would be equally affected.

ls that not curious?

working just one street apart Snow and
Bazalgette would spend years grappling

with the same problem from
two different points of view.

Yet ironically they never met.

Then in 1853 the disease returned.

The mortality in this limited area
probably equals any in the country.

More people have died here in the past
few weeks than during the plague.

From the start of a new outbreak Snow

had been meticulously plotting
the spread of the disease.

The distribution is remarkable.

Houses marked in black
have suffered cholera deaths.

The outbreak is concentrated here in
Broad Street, in the vicinity of a pump,

which enjoys a high reputation
for the taste and purity of its water.

There are eleven other pumps
in the district,

yet around those
there is virtually no cholera.

An army officer from
St John`s old dined in Soho,

drank water from the pump
and was dead within hours.

The coffee shop owner
supplied her customers

with the same water at dinner time,
nine died the next day.

The Percussion cap factory in Broad street
supplies its workers with the pump water.

So far eighteen of them are dead.

Yet the brewery,

almost next door where the workers drink
only beer has suffered no deaths at all.

But most convincing of all
is the case of a widow and her niece

who hailed from Hampstead
a high and healthy part of the city.

When both ladies succumbed to cholera
at the beginning of the outbreak

l was at a loss to explain why.

Until l interviewed
the widow`s son who informed me

that his mother once lived in Soho

where she developed such a taste
for the Broad Street water

that she had a bottle sent up
every day by carrier`s cart.

Both ladies drank the bottle on
Thursday and were dead by Saturday.

Ergo, cholera can not be caused by
miasma, atmospheric effluvia or bad air.

This proves without a doubt that
it is spread in the water supply.

Cholera is a waterborne disease.

But Snow`s theory that cholera was spread
by drinking was too radical for some.

So when he presented it to health
officials they dismissed it out of hand.

Among the doubters was William Farr,

serving on the committee for
scientific enquiry in to cholera.

We`re all familiar with
Dr Snow`s revelations,

but we are reluctant
to accept his suggestion

that the outbreak in Soho was due to
the contamination of a particular well.

lf the Broad Street pump
was the source of the disease

then it was not due to its
contamination with noxious excrement,

but simply to the fact of its
impure waters participating

with the atmospheric
infection of the district.

As we all know cholera is caused
by noxious exhalations.

Despite these official objections
Snow still succeeded

in getting the Broad Street
pump handle removed.

Within days the disease began
to disappear from the area.

Even so the authorities still insisted
that the cause of cholera was miasma.

Then at last things began to change.

ln 1856 Bazalgette became
Chief Engineer of a powerful new body,

the Metropolitan Board of works.

Devising a new sewer system
was now down to him.

He had spent years assimilating
and analysing the problem,

studying other people`s ideas.

The scheme he was developing was based
on a beautifully simple principal.

Gravity.

London is built on
the slopes of a valley.

lf we can intercept the existing sewers

before they debouch
their contents in to the river

we can follow the lines
of the Thames Valley

and use the force of gravity to carry
the sewage away from the Metropolis.

ln Bazalgette`s plans the old drains

would no longer feed their filth
in to the river in London.

lnstead he would build new sewers
to carry the effluent out

in to the Thames estuary to be
discharged and washed safely out to sea.

First he had to calculate the gradient
of the fall and the speed of the flow.

Too fast and the sewers would wear away,
too slow and the sewage would stop moving.

My calculations show

that an average velocity of one and
a half miles an hour will be sufficient.

This will require a minimum fall
of two feet in every mile.

To maintain the gradient so that
the sewage could be taken far outside

London meant dropping the drains
well below the level of the river.

But that could create a new problem.

Thousands of tonnes of sewage
would then have to be pumped

back up to ground level for it
to be discharged in to the river.

No one had invented an engine
capable of pumping such huge volumes.

The engines would pump the sewage
up in to giant reservoirs.

This would permit his masterstroke,

a controlled release of
sewage in to the river.

Just after high water
on the outgoing tide it is then

that we shall be able to release
exactly the right quantities of sewage,

at exactly the right time.

Crucial to the whole venture

was the siteing of the outfalls
in to the Thames estuary.

Each yard further meant longer sewers,
extra pumping and more cost.

So Bazalgette had to choose
locations just outside London.

From there the tide would
wash the sewage out to sea.

Everything depended on his
calculations of the exact ebb and flow.

Mr Bazalgette is investigating
the tidal flow of the Thames,

in order to er, discover
the best position for the outflow pipe.

lf our, calculations
are correct the sewage

can be let out far enough down stream
for the tide to take it out to sea.

Of course if the tide
comes in as well as out,

so if our calculations
are wrong everything up,

well as little as a hundred yards,

the er flow of the river will take
the sewage back in to London.

Bazalgette faced a tricky dilemma,

the government insisted the
outfall should be further down river

so that the sewage couldn`t
flow back towards London.

But this would take longer
to build and cost far more.

With the sewers funded by public money

Bazalgette was under pressure
to keep costs down.

lf we can discharge as the tide starts
to ebb the sewage will be carried

between twelve and sixteen miles
towards the sea diluting all the time.

That`s why we`re here
observing these floats.

lf l get my time incorrect we can
discharge a further twelve miles upstream

and let the tide do the rest.

And twelve miles less sewer will save
many thousands of pounds.

On February 18th, 1856,

convinced that he had satisfied
all the government`s requirements

Bazalgette began drawing up the plans.

l propose to construct three great
main sewers running north of the river.

A high level sewer

that begins in Hampstead and
follows the waters of the fleet.

A middle level sewer

that runs from Nottinghill and
passes under Oxford Street.

And a low level sewer following
the line of the river from Chelsea.

Three similar sewers will run
to the south of the river.

These will be interceptory
sewers to catch

and carry away
the unceasing flow of water,

refuse and plus the length of these new
sewers will be almost one hundred miles.

They will require three hundred
and eighteen million bricks

and the excavation of three and
a half million tonnes of earth.

The interceptory sewers
will be like great boulevards

eleven feet high
running beneath the city.

For the tunnels to be
robust enough to withstand

the entire weight of London bearing
down upon them l have chosen the oval,

the strongest possible shape.

This will also ensure that even when the
water level falls the stream will continue

to flow so the sewers
will be self cleaning.

When the new sewer system is in
operation half a million gallons of water

and waste will pass beneath
this great city every single day.

And if it`s all working as it should
no one will even think about it.

Now all we have to do is build.

Three cheers for Mr Bazalgette.

Hip, hip.

Bazalgette believed his scheme
would save time, money and lives.

His plan even surpassed
the government`s specification,

but the politicians were not convinced.

Mr Bazalgette`s scheme
does have many merits.

But we do not believe
his plans will guarantee

to carry the sewage
beyond the metropolis.

Therefore as chief commissioner
l regret that l must reject them.

Joseph has done practically nothing
else for the last seven years.

Even he`s lost count of the number
of times he`s had to redraft the plans.

Months of surveying and
estimating and tendering.

And now he has to begin again.

work on the long awaiting new sewer system
was postponed and postponed and postponed.

Bazalgette and his team went
from heroes to laughing stocks.

The builder says you were considerably
snubbed by the Chief Commissioner.

The London lllustrated News.

ln sullen pistol like compliance
with the government`s desire

Mr Bazalgette has a fraction at a time
amended his plans for Thames purification.

Though in this respect his latest
effort is still a half measure.

lt will however ensure the destruction
of the river born fish trade,

ruin the waterside towns

and waste upon the unthankful
flood the fertilising matter.

We were reading yet another newspaper

which was condemning him
for his lack of ability

for getting this
project off the ground.

And l just couldn`t believe it yet again
they`re criticising him for,

for what he`s trying to do
which is just a good thing.

And they n`t let him get on and do it.

The Times sir?

Why is it called the Board of works

when Mr Bazalgette had neither the money
nor the power to carry out the works.

Bazalgette and his team redrew
the plans five times to try

and satisfy the government.

And five times the plans were rejected.

All the while the sewage was piling up.

A great stink enveloped London.

As summer temperatures soared
the stench became unbearable.

Fearing that cholera would return all
but a few MPs fled from the capital.

This lime solution is designed to stop
the smell that comes off the river

which is due to all the sewerage

but er l think that the lime solution
is a lot worse than the stuff

that`s supposed to be coming in.

The air now in parliament is poison.

The air is contaminated.

The steward of the Houses
of Parliament has said

that he can no longer be responsible
for the welfare and health of the house.

Even though there was
no cholera outbreak

that summer of 1858
the smell was worse than ever.

The Great Stink had forced
parliament`s hand.

Bowing to public pressure the
honourable members finally passed a bill

that gave Bazalgette the go ahead.

After seven years of planning, endless
setbacks, rejections and disappointments,

they gave him three million pounds,
and told him to start immediately.

The main drainage of London
are the interception of sewage

from the River Thames
has finally commenced.

The spade, the shovel and the pick have
taken the place of pen, ink and debate.

The task facing
Bazalgette is truly immense.

Three hundred and eighteen
million bricks were needed

to build eleven hundred miles of sewer

to carry away over thirty one billion
gallons of sewage a year.

This will form part of the high level
sewer, draining down from Hampstead.

What you see before you is a small section
that will become a five mile trench.

The cheapest way to do
it was the cut and cover method.

Dig the trench, build the sewer,
and fill the earth back in on top.

There`s over twenty thousand of us
on the picks and shovels alone.

Most of the work will be done this way.

Cut and cover in the trenches.

Once we get any deeper than this
then it will be down to the miners.

Poor sods.

The mining part of the operation
was immensely dangerous.

But first the only
thing to keep the men

from being buried alive
were timber supports.

Once finished the whole system
relied on the strength of the bricks.

And above all the cement
that held them together.

Bazalgette`s plan meant creating
a honey comb of tunnels under London.

Any weakness and the City
would collapse on top of them.

The choice of cement was critical,

and Bazalgette opted for an untested
new material Portland cement.

l am aware that
my distinguished colleagues

Mr Brunel and Mr Stevenson
have doubts about this.

And yes,
it is considerably more expensive.

But this cement is perfect for the job.

lt hardens on contact with water.

lt will last for many, many years.

l am building not merely for this
generation, but for generations to come.

Bazalgette`s entire reputation
depended on this choice.

lt`s a problem,

the slightest change in the mixture and
the strength is significantly reduced.

lf he got it wrong it
would mean disaster.

Despite doubts Bazalgette remained
committed to the Portland Cement.

But to minimise risk he introduced
a rigorous system of testing,

effectively inventing
modern quality control.

l had to fetch a sample from every
batch before we could even touch it.

Over a hundred miles a time.

The sewer workers were right
in the line of fire

from the Royal
Artilleries practice range.

lnstructions have been forwarded
to artillery practice in olwich,

to the effect that no more firing

in the direction of the drainage works
is to take place for the present.

Despite these problems
initial progress was good.

The northern high
level is now completed

from Hampstead to Old Ford,
length eight miles.

The middle level sewer
is progressing well causing

but little impediment

as it traverses major thoroughfares
such as Piccadilly in Oxford Street.

But within a year
work had come to a standstill,

and each delay to its
toll on Bazalgette.

lt`s taken seven years
to get the work underway.

Now as soon as it begins
the bricklayers withdraw their labour.

lt`s enough to try
the patience of any man.

The bricklayers demanded a rise
from five to six shillings a day.

Bazalgette had to give in.

There was no shortage of work
for skilled labour in London.

Then as Bazalgette`s underground world
started to take shape the accidents began.

A gas main was fractured by navies

digging the northern middle level
sewer in Shoreditch, East London.

The gas exploded killing a passer-by.

Clerkenwell,
work on the first underground railway

ran right next
to the course of the Fleet sewer.

The railway workers had dug
too close to the sewer wall.

The sewer burst, the railway flooded,
and Bazalgette was blamed.

And then in South London.

A fatal accident happened yesterday
at the main drainage works at Deptford.

At seven o`clock in the morning

a great mass of earth and timber fell
upon the men working in a deep cutting.

Six men were missing, buried alive.

Following hours of frantic digging

the rescue team managed
to bring out three survivors.

After more desperate efforts they
reached another man, but he was dead.

The men even resorted
to digging with their hands,

but again by the time they reached
the next man Bray, he too was dead.

After fifteen hours digging another
miner was still unaccounted for.

Dear Mrs Bray,

lt is with deepest regret that l,
please accept my sincerest sympathies.

Bazalgette felt each loss deeply.

Compared with other engineers of the time
he had the highest of safety standards.

Less than ten fatalities are recorded
throughout the construction of the sewers.

Yet the still vilified him.

The Times was scathing.

The Mercury led with
the uselessness of the Board of works.

So Bazalgette decided
to win over the press.

He invited reporters to witness the
joining of t sections of tunnel at olwich.

His reputation was on the line.

Welcome gentlemen, l trust you find
the surroundings not too uncomfortable?

No, not at all.

You are now standing
in the southern outfall sewer.

Connecting Greenwich to the Erith marshes,
a distance of more than seven miles.

l have invited you out here today

to witness two sections of
the tunnel being joined together.

Edward would you like to proceed?

Sir.

The risk Bazalgette
was taking was huge.

His calculations may have been
meticulous but there was no guarantee

that those running the project
day to day were so precise.

No one could be sure
the two tunnels would actually meet.

We should see some signs
any moment now, almost there.

lf they didn`t he knew
the newspapers would crucify him.

There, we`re through.

So accurate were the designs that
when the different bodies of men met

there was not a deviation of
a quarter inch in their projection.

To Mr Bazalgette no tribute
or praise can be undeserved.

Once the olwich tunnel is completed

all South London`s sewage
could start flowing

to the pumping station at Crossness.

This was always Bazalgette`s
first choice for the outflow.

The government had fought him all
the way delaying the scheme for years.

But now the politicians came to
applaud his engineering marvel,

and in particular
the biggest pumps ever made.

Well the James Watt
company has designed

and built these four
magnificent steam engines.

The largest of their kind in the world.

The engines will have
to pump the sewage

twenty one feet up in
to holding reservoirs.

Where the sewage can be held
until the tide turns.

His Royal Highness,
the Prince of Wales,

will be turning them on
for the first time, literally.

ln our haste to be ready for today

we haven`t been able to conduct
all the tests that we would have liked.

There`s always the chance
that it might not work.

Your Royal Highness, distinguished
guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

On behalf of the Board of works l wish
to thank you all for coming here today.

A few years ago stench and pestilence
were ubiquitous in our great city.

And terrible epidemics
of the cholera claimed

the lives of many thousands
of our fellow citizens.

Although differences continue to exist
as to the causes of disease,

it is clear that our
new drainage system is already

affecting a dramatic improvement
in health across the metropolis.

l now ask his Royal Highness
to switch on the engines.

l hope this country is
as proud of him as l am.

l just can`t believe
this day has actually arrived

after all these years of planning
and politics and worrying.

But l never doubted he would triumph.

lt`s absolutely magnificent.

l think my wife will agree with me,
l genuinely care,

don`t care for um much um hyperbole

when it comes to these things but er
it`s been rather marvellous hasn`t it?

The celebrations were premature.

The new system may have been
functioning in most of London

but it wasn`t yet in the East end.

Less than three months after the grand
opening of Crossness the cholera returned.

Once again health officials had
to resort to desperate measures.

The possessions of
victims were fumigated

with sulphur in a vain attempt
to stop the disease spreading.

But once again William Farr had the
grim task of registering the deaths.

And there was a puzzle.

With the sewers almost complete
the worst of the smell had gone.

So why had the cholera come back?

This reservoir provides
drinking water to the East end.

l`m assured by the
East London water company

that the river that feeds it has been
filtered to cleanse it thoroughly.

Yet earlier today
l saw something very strange.

That strange thing
could be the vital clue

that eventually led Farr to unmask
the true course of cholera.

The Russell family`s water supply
in Poplar had suddenly stopped.

After five days without water
Mr Russell unscrewed the tap

and found an eel
fourteen inches in length.

lt was in a putrid state and the stench
arising from it was most fearful.

Since then two of his children and
his wife have been taken ill.

Eels caught in this reservoir today.

lf there are eels in the reservoir
it can not be filtered.

Therefore sewage is getting in to the
water supply spreading the disease.

And not through the air, through
miasma like l had thought before.

Everything l have ever done for public
health has been based on a falsehood.

A public enquiry revealed
that the East London Water Company

had been supplying unfiltered
water polluted by sewage.

No one had doubted the connection
between cholera and sewage

but only Dr John Snow had understood
exactly how they were connected.

Like many others l have always
believed in the miasma theory,

that disease was carried by smell.

Now l`ve realised that l was wrong,
that Dr Snow was correct.

Cholera is waterborne.

And yet since the sewers were built
the cholera has died out

and everywhere public
health has improved.

l thought the sewers were helping
because they removed the stench,

the pestilence and
therefore the, the disease.

That was our priority.

Purification of the water
was always secondary.

Yet that is what has made
a difference to my fellow citizens.

This then is the supreme
irony of Bazalgette`s story.

He had built his sewers when almost
everyone believed the miasma theory,

his aim simply to take away the smell.

But by also removing the sewage
he had accidentally ensured

that future generations of Londoners
would be safe from the deadly disease.

He had saved the city.

lf the malignant spirits whom we moderns
call cholera, typhus and smallpox,

which are set out in quest of the man

who has been their deadliest foe
in all London,

they would make their way
to the home of Joseph Bazalgette.

The accuracy of John Snow`s
observations was fully vindicated.

Cholera is a waterborne disease.

But tragically he never lived
to see his theory accepted.

By the time he was proved right John
Snow had been dead for eight years.

The effectiveness of Bazalgette`s
great work was proven for all

when on July 26th 1867.

That night the equivalent of two months
average rainfall fell upon London.

Bazalgette`s sewers coped
with every last drop.

The final section of the sewer system
was the Thames Embankment,

a mammoth engineering
project in its own right.

lt houses both
the northern low level sewer

and the metropolitan
underground railway.

And in time the embankments would help
to create a faster flowing clean river.

And if it was working as it should no one
would even think, no one would even think.

When he`d finished

with the sewers Bazalgette turned
his attention to London itself.

His bridges span the river at Putney,
Battersea and Hammersmith.

He replaced narrow streets
with broad boulevards.

He laid out parks right
across the metropolis.

As much as any man Joseph Bazalgette
made modern London.

As for cholera it never returned after
Bazalgette`s sewers were completed.

We can only guess
at how many lives he saved.

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