When a smelly sewer was just one too many

Now I am pretty much sure I am going to be corrected today or at the very least attract someone who knows more about 19th century sewer ventilation pipes than I do.

But I grew up with one at the top of our road in south east London. It is still there today as is the one my brother in law took a picture of in Plumstead. Of course when you are growing up you take bits of street furniture for granted. Well I did anyway.

Ours was tall made out of iron and was always painted a pale green although the one in Plumstead is more a pale blue. But I digress.

They were for venting the sewers of the more obnoxious and even dangerous gasses which could accumulate down below. I suppose they are still necessary today.

Our Colin reckoned he heard running water when he took one picture of the base.

Now I have not come across one in Manchester but I bet there will be someone who has, and posts the fact with perhaps a picture.

I expect they help date the area.  One source I read suggested that they were erected in the years after the Great London Stink in 1858 and this would fit roughly with when my bit of Peckham was being laid out. They were particularly necessary in hilly areas where gas could get trapped in pockets, and both my bit of Peckham and Colin’s Plumstead are built on hills.

And at least one chap got in on the act and in 1895.  Joseph Edmund Webb, of Birmingham, patented the “Webb’s Patent Sewer Gas Destructor" in  March 1895. At its top, behind a glass, burned a small flame from the town’s gas supply. This acted as a chimney, drawing the sewer gas up to the flame, where it was ignited, thus illuminating the street. The cleverness of Mr Webb’s patent was the way it regulated the supply of sewer gas.

North Tyneside council has restored ten in Whitley Bay and Monkseaton. Blyth council has restored five. Sheffield, though, is the capital of the destructor.

It was built on seven hills, so there were lots of folds and u-bends in its sewer system in which to trap gas.

From 1914 to 1935, it installed 84 destructors, of which 22 remain with three still at work, casting an orange glow on the Sheffield streets.*

And much to my surprise there is even a facebook page.

Which I think might indeed be a fitting point to close on although I have yet to find  Henry Eddie & Co Ltd or the Bow Foundry.

Pictures; from the collection of Colin Fitzpatrick   

*The Northern Echo July 2008 http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/memories/3211527.Is_this_just_the_tip_of_the_stink_pole_/

Back on Lausanne Road with another bit of street furniture and the memory of a street game

Now I am back with the street furniture of my youth but for once it is something that hasn’t vanished and I am pretty much sure still does the business it was made to do.

So long after the water troughs have gone and the old red telephone kiosk has become a rarity outside the tourist haunts you can still find those tall ventilation shafts.

They were for venting the sewers of the more obnoxious and even dangerous gasses which could accumulate down below.

I have written about them in the past and have been drawn back with memories of the one on the corner of Lausanne Road.*

Of course back when I was growing up there I took it for granted, after all I passed it every day on my way to Edmund Waller and then Samuel Pepys and like pillar boxes and telephone kiosks it was so much part of the scenery as not to even warrant a second look.

But now I wonder if they have a future.  It may be that they remain indispensible but given modern technology their days may be over and they linger on until someone decides they are surplus to requirements.

That would be a shame because the one on the corner with Belfort still evokes memories of hot summer days when the tar at the side of the road had gone soft enough to play with and for what seemed an eternity we would draw it out using discarded lolly sticks.

Back then there was little to distract this street pastime for few cars passed along Lausanne Road and after the milkman had been there was only the weekly bin lorry and occasional rag and bone man to interrupt us.

All a little different from this picture of Gatling Road in Plumstead packed full of cars which will have to stand it for Lausanne Road.

I chose it because it too has a ventilation shaft and also because I have never got round to taking a picture of that bit of Lausanne Road.

But maybe some has and I would welcome a picture of that piece of Street furniture I played beside.

Pictures; Gatling Road, Plumstead, 2012 from the collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick

*When a smelly sewer was just one too many, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Plumstead

Explaining those smelly Victorian sewer pipes

Now, not for the first time, I have been told that my interest in all thigs street furniture is a bit odd.

But you would be surprised at just how many other people share my fascination for coal hole covers, water troughs, finger posts and of course pillar boxes and telephone kiosks.

Most of the list are on the “danger list” of everyday objects from the past which are fast disappearing from our streets.

But some stubbornly cling on, and of these those smelly Victorian sewer pipes are can be found pretty much everywhere.

I say pretty much everywhere, but not entirely so, because great chunks of Manchester and other cities lack those tall elegant cast iron funnels.

And I never quite understood why, so I was pleased when Neil Simpson and Bill Sumner, offered up the definitive answer.

Neil Simpson told me, “we, in general, don't need sewer vent pipes in Manchester because Manchester is pretty flat and in general the sewers drains by gravity to the sewage treatment works.
E.g. most of the major sewers in Manchester drain by gravity to the main outfall leading from Chester Road, under Trafford Park and ending up at Davyhulme Sewage Works.

You generally only get sewer vent pipes in hilly areas (Sheffield has loads) where sewage can pool at low points in the sewers when flow rates are low or there is a risk of creating a partial vacuum in the sewers when flows are high, thus potentially sucking the water out of properties with inadequately vented U bends.

Strangely though, Liverpool has loads of sewer vent pipes, but that is because there is a huge interceptor sewer running the length of the riverfront that is used to store sewage during storms occurring at high tides, so theoretically could start to gas off”.

And Bill added, "Manchester City Waterworks regulations meant that every house had to have a sewerage pipe open to the air fitted within a few feet of any toilet, so the answer to your question Andrew is the smelly sewerage pipes in Manchester are fitted on the side of your house..... this was not the case in many areas, with explosive results.”

Leaving me to continue that well-trodden path of asking for images, anecdotes and descriptions of other “smelly sewerage pipes”.

My two come from Plumstead in south east London which is very hilly.

Location; all over but especially in hilly places

Pictures; the smelly Victorian sewer pipe, Plumstead, 2009, from the collection Liz and Colin Fitzpatrick

For all the Friends of smelly Victorian sewer pipes

Now just as I suspected there are lots of people out there who collect  smelly Victorian sewer pipes.*

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.**

But having said that, and posting the observation, quick as a flash Steven Robertson cam back with the picture of the one on Walkden Road, adding that

"There is one very close to Walkden Station, another is at the junction of The East Lancs Road and Walkden Road and another is on Eccles Old Road near to the junction of Weaste Lane."

While, Kevin Bamber told me that, in his home town of Rhyl "there was one on Sisson Street where I grew up. 
Also March Road, Victoria Road and Ffordd Derwen.

The one on Sisson Street was only removed in the last 20 years".


I await more.

Location; Walken

Picture,the smelly Victorian sewer pipes, Walkden Road, 2019, from the collection of Steve Robertson

*Friends of 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_/

Smelly Victorian sewer pipes no.3 …………. the one in Leicester

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_/