Why Dorothy is such a fantastic bore

Dorothy is named after the wife of one of the directors of Murphy’s - the construction company.

"It’s just like naming a ship.” said my guide showing me round the Thames Water construction site. 

Apparently all boring machines have women’s names. The first two Crossrail machines were called Phyllis - after Phyllis Pearsall who created the London A-Z - and Ada after Ada Lovelace who was one of the first computer scientists. 

So…if you overhear a man in building worker’s gear saying to his mate on the bus ‘I’ve spent all day underground with Dorothy’ you’ll know there’s no hanky panky involved. 




135 ton crane at Westbourne Green

What is happening?
Murphy is one of the partners in the Optimise group working on a massive sewerage and drainage project in Queens Park, Kilburn and Maida Vale.

This will renew and update the water and drainage system designed and built 150 years ago.
My guide told me that one of the crane drivers is 67 years old and still going strong. "He's one of the best in the UK".



The crane's driving cab. 

The old Victorian system


Bazalgette inspects construction

This was started in 1864 and designed by Joseph Bazalgette. It was made to cope with a London population of only 2 million. Fortunately for us Bazalgette had foresight and planned for the future. In his planning for the network, he took the highest population and came up with a diameter of pipe needed. He then said 'Well, we're only going to do this once and there's always the unforeseen' and doubled the diameter to be used.

If he had been made to use the smaller pipe diameter - as many cost-conscious critics wanted him to - the sewer would have overflowed in the 1960s, rather than coping until the present day as it has. Today the water network has to deal with a London population 4 times greater - the 8 million people who now live in London.

What are Thames Water up to?
"They cant be serious!"  said my neighbour the other day as we tried to cross the road dodging all the buses which now came round our corner. All traffic was redirected to avoid the road works.

Two campaigns

Tamplin Mews Gardens
Although I live in Maida Vale the first I heard about any of this was when I was handed a leaflet in my local pub. The leaflet encouraged me to join other “outraged” local residents protesting about Thames Water’s plans to dig up Tamplin Mews Gardens.

The leaflet said that the park would be taken away and children would no longer be able to play there. Later - in my local leisure centre someone told me that the gardens were going to be made into a huge cesspit and children would have to play next to it. How could they? I thought.

Maida Vale Flood Action
No one said anything about the flooded houses or why Thames Water would waste money on this kind of thing.

It’s a serious business especially if you live in one of the 350 households in the Maida Vale area which have had water contaminated by sewage flooding into their homes after heavy rain. 

Flooded house

It was only later that I found out that the works had been the result of another campaign started as early as 2009 by Maida Vale Flood action. Through thick and thin the leaders of the campaign had done their own research, lobbied councillors and MPs and had finally won the support of Thames Water. After lengthy debates and what seemed like endless consultations Thames Water’s £17.5 million project had been given the go ahead.

Chippenham Road works

New sewers, tanks and pumping stations would be built – one of the tanks being able to hold the equivalent of more than two Olympic-sized swimming pools.  

Tank in Westbourne Gardens

The project was launched in June 2013 and should complete early in 2015. Following Bazalgette’s example these will be sewers and drainage systems for the future and this means householders will not have to dread a weather forecast of heavy rain.

 

So don’t be bored by campaigns that ask you to swing in with your support but haven’t asked any questions or done any proper research.




They might well represent the worst kind of campaign “Not in my back yard – only in someone else’s”.

You might be glad that Dorothy, Ada or Phyllis have come to bore in your town.

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Related blog:
What lies beneath 17^th July 2013

References

Joseph Bazalgette - Wikipedia

Bazalgette's capacity for hard work was remarkable; every connection to the sewerage system by the various Vestry Councils had to be checked and Bazalgette did this himself and the records contain thousands of linen tracings with handwritten comments in Indian ink on them "Approved JWB" "I do not like 6" used here and 9" should be used. JWB" and so on. It is perhaps not surprising that his health suffered as a result. The records are held by Thames Water in large blue binders gold-blocked reading "Metropolitan Board of Works" and then dated, usually two per year.

MaidaVale Area Forum – Monday 18 March 2013

Thames Water press release: Sewer flooding victims demand solution

What lies beneath?

London’s “lost” rivers

Chelsea’s football ground should be called Counter’s Creek not Stamford Bridge – the creek which starts at Kensal Green and flows underground through Olympia and Earls Court ends at Sands End where it flows out into the Thames. Someone got confused when it was named and thought the Thames tributary was Stamford Brook. Counters Creek is one of the many “lost” waterways of London.



Route of river Westbourne 1790

Look out for names to give clues as to what lies beneath.

• Spring Grove
• Well Walk
• Brook Green
• Kilburn
• Westbourne Park
• Knightsbridge 

Some of the major underground rivers are the Tyburn, the Fleet, the Westbourne and the Effra. 

There was a time when London’s rivers were not lost but the source of fish and provided transport and energy.

The Domesday Book in 1086 records more than 6,000 mills and freshwater fisheries on the capital's rivers, streams and brooks.
By medieval times many had become dumping grounds for rubbish and sewage, causing blocked channels to flood and had generally become "an eye-sore and a nose-sore".

Nicholas Barton author of the Lost Rivers of London describes how the biggest of London’s rivers - the Fleet - was partly covered over during the rebuilding of the city after the Great Fire in 1666, and finally after the Great Stink of 1858, when London was choked by the smell of the Thames.

Holborn Viaduct

Although this is now is a road bridge linking Holborn with Newgate Street in the City of London, passing over Farringdon Street it also crosses a 'lost' river.

Holborn Viaduct

It was built between 1863 and 1869 and replaced a much older structure; Holborn Bridge,

which crossed the River Fleet already culverted to the Thames a century earlier.

 

This shows a royal procession under Holborn Viaduct in 1869 and along the road covering the river Fleet.


An unsung hero

Sir Joseph Bazalgette

Sir Joseph Bazalgette was commissioned by the Metropolitan Board of Works to set up a new underground sewage system which as well as reducing the stink had the unexpected effect of saving many lives of people who might have died from cholera contracted from London’s drinking water. Bazalgette’s system incorporated several rivers during the 19th century, including the Tyburn.




The Octagon pumping station

The water and sewerage system included several pumping stations such as the decorative Octagon at  Crossness near Erith Marshes.

The building may look familiar to video game players who reached the final mission of the video game The Getaway: Black Monday. This was the building used for the video.


Mind the pipe

Although most of these rivers have gone underground and are part of the water drainage and sewerage systems of London – some are channelled through pipes and can be seen above ground.

Here the river Westbourne flows through a conduit at Sloan Square tube station.

Not just shopping but fishing
Even though the rivers have been lost to sight they have not been forgotten. Today enthusiasts of London’s underground rivers include The Tyburn Angling Society whose architect envisages a return to rivers overground and a series of pools and canals suitable for anglers.

See this proposal for developing South Molton Street. Tongue in cheek or a new Venice?

My idea for this blog came from one of the excellent London Walks – Subterranean London. If you have a couple of hours to spare you can learn a lot on one of their guided walks. Just turn up and pay the fee. No booking required.