Before Bazalgette: The Surrey and Kent Commission of Sewers 1800–1847

REFERENCES

• The main sources for this paper are:
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• (a) the records of the Surrey and Kent Sewer Commission and the Metropolitan Sewer Commission (which replaced it in 1847) in the London Metropolitan Archives (abbreviated here as SKCS and MCS respectively)
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• (b) Reports Relating to the Sewage (London, 1843), included in Sewer Reports, London Metropolitan Archives, Book No. 601/54 (abbreviated as Reports)
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• (c) Reports of Parliamentary and other official enquiries, especially the Commons Select Committee of 1834, the evidence given to the public enquiry into the 1847 Surrey and Kent Sewers Bill and evidence to the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission.
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• (d) for overviews of the London Sewer Commissions, Ida Darlington, The London Commission-ers of Sewers and their Records (Chichester, 1970), and Sydney and Beatrice Webb, English Local Government: Statutory Authorities for Special Purposes (Vol IV) (London, 1922). Ida Darlington has a good description of the Westminster Commission, the other very large one; the Webbs, as Fabian reformers, are hostile to unelected and archaic bodies, but still useful.
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• Webb, op. cit. (1d), p. 99.
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• Reports, p. 63.
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• For all of these, and for other members of the large family of Gwilts, Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840, 3rd edn (New Haven and London, 1995).
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• Reports, p. 64.
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• Court Minutes, 1 June 1813, SKCS 58.
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• Reports, p. 68 and plans SKCS/P4/10 and SKCS/ P4/30.
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• Reports, p. 73.
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• The Court minute book for 1844 (SKCS 64) is the main basis for these figures, supported by other examples from earlier periods. In outlying areas the work could be cheaper.
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• The penstock and house are at the junction of Bermondsey Wall East and Farncombe Street. See also Reports, p. 79.
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• Plan of the Districts drained by the Watercourses . . . in Kent [and] . . . Surrey. Signed by William Haywood, May 1853. Corporation of London Record Office Plan drawer 2, No 15.
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• Court Minutes, 11 Aug. 1826, SKCS 60.
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• Evidence of I'Anson and Newman to the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission, 1847, MCS 476, doc. A26 and Report by Thomas Lovick and J.L. Hale, 1848, MCS 476 doc. A20.
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• For payments: House of Commons Sessional Papers, vol. XLV (1831–32), pp. 158–61; vol. XXXIV (1833), p. 139; vol. XLVIII (1843), pp. 218–19; vol. XL (1846), p. 407; vol. XXXIII (1850), pp. 447–50. For footage completed, Reports, pp. 18–21.
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• General Purposes Committee Minutes, 18 Jan. 1833, SKCS 66, and Court Minutes, 25 Jan 1833, SKCS 61.
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• General Purposes Committee Minutes, 6 Jul. 1838, SKCS 67.
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• Court Minutes, 3 Mar. 1837, SKCS 62.
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• Court Minutes, 26 Sept. 1834, and 12 Aug. 1836, SKCS 62.
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• Court Minutes, 3 Mar. 1832, SKCS 61.
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• Court Minutes, 14 Mar. 1828, SKCS 60.
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• Court Minutes, 24 Mar. 1842, SKCS 63.
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• General Purposes Committee Minutes, 13 Sept. 1844, SKCS 68.
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• Court Minutes, 8 Jul. 1836, SKCS 62.
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• Court Minutes, 29 Nov. 1833, SKCS 61, and 19 Apr. 1844, SKCS 64.
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• Report from the Select Committee on Metropolis Sewers (House of Commons paper, London, 1834).
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• Edwin Chadwick, Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Classes. Appendix to Report . . . of an enquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Population of Great Britain (Command Paper, London, 1842).
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• For Chadwick, I have relied mainly on S.E. Finer, The Life and Times of Sir Edwin Chadwick (London, 1952) and also Anthony Brundage, England's "Prussian Minister" (Pennsylvania, 1988).
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• Chadwick, op. cit. (26), p. 54.
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• Reports, pp. 45–46.
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• Reports, p. 68.
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• % Reports, p.75.
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• Court Minutes, 2 June 1843, SKCS 63.
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• For Walker, D. Smith, 'James Walker (1781–1862): Civil Engineer', Transactions of the Newcomen Society, vol. 69, no. 1(1997–98), pp. 23–56.
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• Report by the Commissioners of HM Woods, Forests [etc] enclosing the Report of the Surveying Officers; and minutes of evidence . . . upon a preliminary enquiry respecting the Surrey and Kent Sewers Bill (House of Commons Paper, London, 1847).
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• Ibid., Report of the Surveying Officers, pp. vii—viii.
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• Accountant's Report 16 Feb. 1848, MCS 476, A4.
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• Ibid.
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• First Report of the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission (London, 1847), p. 93.
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• Clerk's Letter Book, 1 and 9 Dec. 1847, SKCS 305.
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• Webb, op. cit. (1d), pp. 82 and 91.
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• Ibid., p. 103.
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• Court Minutes, 8 Apr. 1820 and 21 Nov. 1823, SKCS 59.
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• Reports, p. 67.
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• Court Minutes, 31 May 1844, SKCS 64.
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• Reports, pp. 75–76.
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• Report, MCS 476 A59.
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• MCS 476 A4 Appendix p. 9.
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• First Report of the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission, (London, 1847), p. 117.
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• For these Commissions (and for a good account of the sanitary history leading up to them), see Stephen Halliday's biography of Bazalgette, The Great Stink of London (Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 1999).
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