Now I collect those tall cast iron funnels that are a mute reminder of the efforts of Victorian sanitation engineers to make all things safe.
I grew up with one which was located just a few yards from our house in Peckham, and came across another in Plumstead.
This one I collected yesterday in Leicester just a couple of streets away from our Polly and Josh.
They were for venting the sewers of the more obnoxious and even dangerous gasses which could accumulate down below, and I suppose they still do the business today.
Oddly I have never come across one in Manchester, although they are all over the North East.**
That said there must be many more survivors, leaving me just to make that appeal for pictures, stories or anecdotes of other smelly Victorian sewer pipes.
Location; Leicester
Pictures; the smelly Victorian sewer pipe on Westcotes Drive, Leicester,2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
*Smelly Victorian sewer pipes, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Smelly%20Victorian%20sewer%20pipes
** *The Northern Echo July 2008, http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/memories/3211527.Is_this_just_the_tip_of_the_stink_pole_/
I grew up with one which was located just a few yards from our house in Peckham, and came across another in Plumstead.
They were for venting the sewers of the more obnoxious and even dangerous gasses which could accumulate down below, and I suppose they still do the business today.
Oddly I have never come across one in Manchester, although they are all over the North East.**
That said there must be many more survivors, leaving me just to make that appeal for pictures, stories or anecdotes of other smelly Victorian sewer pipes.
Location; Leicester
Pictures; the smelly Victorian sewer pipe on Westcotes Drive, Leicester,2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
*Smelly Victorian sewer pipes, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Smelly%20Victorian%20sewer%20pipes
** *The Northern Echo July 2008, http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/memories/3211527.Is_this_just_the_tip_of_the_stink_pole_/
There used to be a row of them on Hollin Lane, between Middleton and Heywood. I have just had a look on Google maps, and can see one clearly, but scrolling towards the motorway, there are at least 2 more in the trees
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.5666107,-2.2047678,3a,75y,67.01h,88.25t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRD8G0Jr53-Ch3_jmVMlvHQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Thanks Glen
ReplyDelete2 more in Netherhall. one on laburnum Road at the end of Rosebarn way and another at the end of Portcullis Road leading on to Keyham Lane west.
ReplyDeleteLived here my whole life and never knew or really thought about them before seeing them as a marker on pokemon go lol