The money actually expended in constructing the 1100 miles of sewers
and 4000 miles of drains, even if we were only to date from Jan. 1,
1800, is not and never can be known. They have been built at intervals,
as the metropolis, so to speak, _grew_. They were built also in many
sizes and forms, and at many variations of price, according to the
depth from the surface, the good or bad management, or the greater or
lesser extent of jobbery or “patronage” in the several independent
commissions. Accounts were either not presented in “the good old
times,” or not preserved.
Had the 1100 miles of sewers to be constructed anew, they would
be, according to the present prices paid by the Commissioners--not
including digging or such extraneous labour, but the cost of the sewer
only--as follows:--
366 miles of sewers of the first
class, or 1,932,480 feet, at 15_s._
per foot £1,449,360
366 miles, or 1,932,480 feet of
the second class, at 11_s._ per foot 1,062,864
Same length of third class, at
9_s._ per foot 869,616
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Total cost of the sewers of the
metropolis £3,381,840
As this is a lower charge than was paid for the construction of more
than three-fourths of the sewers, we may fairly assume that their cost
amounted to from three millions and a half to four millions of pounds
sterling.
The majority of the house-drains running into the sewers are brick, and
seldom less than 9 inches square; sometimes, in the old brick drains,
they are some inches larger, and in the very old drains, and in some
100 years old, wooden planks were often used instead of a brick or
stone construction, for the sake of reducing cost, and replaced when
rotted. The wood, in many cases, soon decayed, and since 1847 no wooden
sewers have been allowed to be formed, nor any old ones to be repaired
with new wood; the work must be of stone or brick, if not pipeage.
About two-thirds of the drains running from the houses to the sewers
are brick; the remaining third tubular, or earthenware pipes. The cost,
if now to be formed, would be somewhat as follows:--
1893-1/3 miles of brick drains, 5_s._
per foot, as average of sizes £2,499,200
945-2/3 feet of tubular drains, average
of sizes 2_s._ 6_d._ 624,800
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Total cost of the house-drains of
London £3,124,000
The cost of the street or gully drains have still to be estimated.
The present cost of the 9-inch gully-pipe drains is about 3_s._ 6_d._ a
foot; of the 6-inch, 2_s._ 6_d._ Of the proportionate lengths of these
two classes of street-drains I have not been able to gain any account,
for, I believe, it has never been ascertained in any way approaching
to a total return. Taking 1200 miles, however, as quite within the
full length of the gully-drains, and calculating at the low average of
3_s._ the foot for the whole, the total cost of the street-drains of
the metropolis would be 950,400_l._, or, I am assured, one might say a
million sterling, and this, even if all were done at the present low
prices; the original cost would, of course, have been much greater.