3. The Cutting of Roads and Streets.—According to a Return presented to Parliament, there were 200 miles of new streets formed within the metropolitan police district between the years 1839-49; but in the formation of these no earth has been taken away; on the contrary a considerable quantity has been required for their construction. In the case of the lowering of Holborn-hill, that which was removed from the top was used to fill up the hollow.
4. The Formation of Parks.—The only park that has been constructed during the last ten years in the metropolis is Victoria Park, at the east end of the town; but I am informed that, in the course of the works there, no earth was carted away, the soil which was removed from one part being used for the levelling of another.
5. Pipe and Sewer Works.—The earth displaced in the course of these operations is usually put back into the ground whence it was taken, excepting in the formation of some new sewer, and then a certain proportion has to be carted away. Upon inquiry among those who are likely to be best informed, I am assured that 1000 loads may be taken as the quantity carted away in the course of the last year.
6. Well-sinking.—In this there has been but little done. Those who are best informed assure me that within the last ten years no such works of any magnitude have been executed.
The account as to the quantity of rubbish removed in London, then, stands thus:—
| Refuse Earthen Materials. | Loads per Annum. |
| Potsherds and Pansherds | 9,000 |
| Old bricks, tiles, slates, mortar, &c. | 160,000 |
| Oyster-shells | 25,000 |
| Refuse Earth. | |
| Foundations of houses | 800,000 |
| Railway cuttings | 160,000 |
| Pipe and sewer laying | 1,000 |
| 1,155,000 |
Thus, then, we perceive that the gross quantity of rubbish that has to be annually removed throughout the metropolis is upwards of 1,000,000 loads per annum.
Now what is done with the vast amount of refuse matter? Whither is it carried? How is it disposed of?
The rubbish from the house building or removing is of no value to the master carter, and is shot gratuitously wherever there is the privilege of shooting it; this privilege, however, is very often usurped. Great quantities used to be shot in what were, until these last eight years, Bishop Bonner’s Fields, but now Victoria Park. At the present time this sort of rubbish is often slily deposited in localities generally known as “the ruins,” being places from which houses, and indeed streets, have been removed, and the sites left bare and vacant.
But the main localities for the deposition of this kind of refuse are in the fields round about the metropolis. Each particular district appears to have its own special “shoot,” as it is called, for rubbish, of which the following are the principal.