The orifices or mouths of the sewers where they discharge themselves into the Thames, beginning from their eastern, and following them seriatim to their western extremity, are as follows:—
- Limehouse Hole.
- Irongate Wharf.
- Ratcliffe Cross.
- Fox-lane, Shadwell.
- London Dock.
- St. Katharine’s Dock.
- The eleven City outlets, which I shall specify hereafter.
- Essex-street, Strand.
- Norfolk-street, Strand.
- Durham Hill (or Adelphi).
- Northumberland-street.
- Scotland-yard.
- Bridge-street, Westminster.
- Pimlico.
- Cubitt’s (also in Pimlico).
- Chelsea Bridge.
- Fulham Bridge.
- Hammersmith Bridge.
- Sandford Bridge (into a sort of creek of the Thames), or near the four bridges.
- Twickenham.
- Hampton.
- In all, 32.
It might only weary the reader to enumerate the outlets on the Surrey side of the Thames, which are 28 in number, so that the public sewer outlets of the whole metropolis are 60 in all.
The public sewer outlets from the City of London into the Thames are, as I have said, eleven in number, or rather they are usually represented as eleven, though in reality there are twelve such orifices—the “Upper” and “Eastern” Custom-House Sewers (which are distinct) being computed as one. These outlets, generally speaking the most ancient in the whole metropolis, are—
- London Bridge.
- Ancient Walbrook.
- Paul’s Wharf.
- The Fleet-street Sewer at Blackfriars Bridge.
- (I mention these four first, because they are the largest outlets).
- Tower Dock.
- Pool Quay.
- Custom House.
- New Walbrook.
- Dowgate Dock.
- Hamburg Wharf.
- Puddle Dock.
Until recently, there was also Whitefriars Docks, but this is now attached to the Fleet Sewer outlet.
The Fleet Sewer is the oldest in London. No portion of the ditch or river composing it is now uncovered within the jurisdiction of the City; but until a little more than eleven years ago a portion of it, north of Holborn, was uncovered, and had been uncovered for years. Indeed, as I have before intimated, barges and small craft were employed on the Fleet River, and the City determined to “encourage its navigation.” Even the “polite” Earl of Chesterfield, a century ago (for his lordship was born in 1694, and died in 1773), when asked by a Frenchman in Paris, if there was in London a river to compare to the Seine? replied that there certainly was, and it was called Fleet Ditch! This is now the sewer; but it was not a covered sewer until 1765, when the Corporation ordered it to be built over.
The next oldest sewer outlet is that at London Bridge, and London antiquaries are not agreed as to whether it or the Fleet is the oldest.
The Fleet Sewer at Blackfriars Bridge is 18 feet high; between Tudor-street and Fleet Bridge (about the foot of Ludgate-hill), 14 feet 3 inches high; at Holborn Bridge, 13 feet; and in its continuation in the long-unfinished Victoria-street, 12 feet 3 inches. In all these localities it is 12 feet wide.
The New London Bridge Sewer, built or rebuilt, wholly or partly, in 1830, is 10 feet by 8 at its outlet; decreasing to the south end of King William-street, where it is 9 feet by 7; while it is 8 feet by 7 in Moorgate-street.