Every house built or rebuilt since the passing of the Metropolitan
Sewers Act in 1848, must be drained, with an exception, which I shall
specify, into a sewer. The law, indeed, divested of its technicalities
is this: the owner of a newly-erected house must drain it to a sewer,
without the intervention of a cesspool, if there be a sewer within
100 feet of the site of the house; and, if necessary, in places but
partially built over, such owner must continue the sewer along the
premises, and make the necessary drain into it; all being done under
the approval of the proper officer under the Commissioners. If there
be, however, an established sewer, along the side, front, or back of
any house, a covered drain must be made into that at the cost of the
owner of the premises to be drained. “Where a sewer,” says the 46th
section of the Act, “shall already be made, and a drain only shall
be required, the party is to pay a contribution towards the original
expense of the sewer, if it shall have been made within thirty-five
years before the 4th of September, 1848, the contribution to be paid
to the builder of the sewer.”... “In cases where there shall be no
sewer into which a drain could be made, the party must make a covered
drain to lead into a cesspool or other place (not under a house) as
the Commissioners may direct. If the parties infringe this rule, the
Commissioners may do the work and throw the cost on them in the nature
of an improvement rate, or as charges for default, and levy the amount
by distress.”
I mention these circumstances more particularly to show the extent, and
the far-continued ramification, of the subterranean metropolis. I am
assured by one of the largest builders in the western district of the
capital that the new regulations (as to the dispensing with cesspools)
are readily complied with, as it is a recommendation which a house
agent, or any one letting new premises, is never slow to advance (“and
when it’s the truth,” he said, “they do it with a better grace”), that
there will be in the course of occupancy no annoyance and no expense
incurred in the clearing away of cesspoolage.
I shall at present describe only the house-drainage, which is connected
with the public sewerage. The old mode of draining a house separately
into the cesspool of the premises will, of course, be described under
the head of cesspoolage, and that old system is still very prevalent.
At the times of passing both general and local Acts concerning
buildings, town improvements and extensions, the erection of new
streets and the removal of old, much has been said and written
concerning better systems of ventilating, warming, and draining
dwelling-houses; but until after the first outbreak of cholera in
England, in 1832, little public attention was given to the great
drainage of all the sewers. However, on the passing of the Building and
Sanitary Acts generally, the authorities made many experiments, not so
much to improve the system of sewerage as of house-drainage, so as to
make the dwelling-houses more wholesome and sweet.
To effect this, the great object was the abolition of the cesspool
system, under which filth must accumulate, and where, from scamped
buildings or other causes, evaporation took place, the effects of the
system were found to be vile and offensive, and have been pronounced
miasmatic. Having just alluded to these matters, I proceed to describe
the modernly-adopted connection of house-drainage and street-sewerage.
Experiments, as I have said, were set on foot under the auspices of
public bodies, and the opinions of eminent engineers, architects,
and surveyors were also taken. Their opinions seem really to be
concentrated in the advocacy of _one_ remedy--improved house-drainage;
and they appear to have agreed that the system which is at present
adopted is, under the circumstances, the best that can be adopted.
I was told also by an eminent practical builder, perfectly unconnected
with any official or public body, and, indeed, often at issue with
surveyors, &c., that the new system was unquestionably a great
improvement in every respect, and that some years before its adoption
as at present he had abetted such a system, and had carried it into
effect when he could properly do so.