is?—The refuse of a great portion of the metropolis might be disposed of
to immense advantage, but it must be by operations on a scale beyond the
power of private capitalists. The sweepings of the paved streets is good
as manure: on grassland it is nearly equal to horse-dung; but it
contains so much seed that it scarcely does on ploughed land for
immediate use. It produces great quantities of herbage; every year,
however, it improves, because the weed is lost from it and the manure is
left. When the streets are dry, and it will pay for transit, we sell a
few loads. The sweepings from the Macadamized roads consist so much of
granite that it is of very little use indeed; and in general the
street-sweepings are mixed up with other manure for sale.
3.—_Evidence of_ MR. JOHN TREBLE, _Contractor for Cleansing, as to the
Obstacles to Cleansing, and the Conversion of the Refuse of the
Metropolis to Productive Uses_.
You have been engaged in the cleansing of the metropolis, have you
not?—Yes; I have been engaged, and my father before me, in the general
cartage of materials, and also in extensive business as a nightman, but
I have now retired from business.
What is the usual expense of emptying cesspools?—The full price to
respectable private houses is 15_s._ per load, but the contract price is
about 10_s._ per load. The period of emptying is dependent on whether
there is any drainage from the cesspool, or whether there are any
land-springs. Some would require to be emptied twice or three times
a-year, whilst others would go two or three years without being filled.
About 1_l._ per annum per tenement would perhaps be the expense one with
another.
Where the cesspools are relieved, is not the ground about
saturated?—Yes, it is; in digging the foundations of old houses for new
buildings, the earth is found to be saturated. We have frequently to
empty one person’s place because it is found that the soil has
penetrated through to the neighbours’ houses.
Does not this moisture affect the condition of the house?—Yes, and it
would be good economy for the sake of the house, and keeping a dry
foundation, to have water-closets and good drainage from the house to
the sewers.
By having the water-closets, the expense of the removal of the soil,
annually or otherwise, would be saved?—Yes; and the expense of the
dearest water-closets bears no proportion to the annual expense of
cleansing, though water-closets I think might be constructed at a less
expense, on a more simple plan, than they now are. They might be
constructed on a principle to receive the rain-water and all the liquid
refuse from the houses, which would increase the cleansing.
To effect cleansing on this principle, it will of course be necessary to
have the water laid on in the house?—Of course it will. It would greatly
assist the cleansing, if the water-companies were required to draw their
plugs once at least in the fortnight. It would cleanse their own pipes,
and assist in the cleansing of the sewers. The company would say that
that would be a great waste of water, but a sufficient body of water
might be obtained for the purpose in a quarter of an hour.
Does not the soil bear any value as a manure?—In general it bears no
value to the nightman as a manure. One hinderance to any removal to a
distance is, that, by the police regulations, cesspools can only be
emptied in the night within certain hours. This prevents cartage to any
great distance, and cartage is very dear. Some nightmen have paid 6_d._
per load for the liberty of depositing it. The object of the nightmen is
to get rid of the soil early, and return with the cart to complete the
emptying in one night. Formerly, before the new police were so much
about, the men would empty the cart in any bye street or place where
they could; they would, when it was in a liquid state, empty it down the
sewers; they do so now when they have an opportunity, and return to
complete the job. Formerly the site of the New London University was a
place in which the refuse was deposited; so was the site of the new row
of grand houses in Hyde Park Gardens. I think the site of Belgrave
Square was another place of deposit; but those places being built over,
there is now much difficulty in getting rid of the refuse.
What is the expense of cartage in London?—As a contractor, for the use
of a cart, a man, and horse a-day, I used to charge 9_s._ the day for
carting stone and rubbish. My successor did it for 7_s._, but I saw his
name yesterday in the Gazette. The cost of the man’s work and the horse
will amount to 6_s._ or 7_s._ in London.
What distance do your carts in full work travel in London?—A good day’s
work to send a load out and return empty would be about ten miles; over
hilly parts not so far.
Is the street refuse of the paved streets valuable as manure?—Yes it is;
but it is only worth removal when it can be easily carted, that is, when
it is in a dry state. The contractor being obliged to cleanse the
streets in a given time, it would not pay to have such a number of carts
as to complete the cleansing within the time and carry the refuse to a
distance. They get rid of the refuse at the nearest place of deposit. In
dry weather they have less to do and can turn their carts to account.
The refuse is then dry, and it rides well, and may be sold to an
advantage, and it sometimes fetches half-a-crown a load.
At what distance from the place of work would it be delivered at that
price?—At about three miles distance; not exceeding that.
Is none of the refuse of the metropolis carried further as manure?—Yes;
some of the farmers who bring produce to market return with their carts
loaded with dung to greater distances.
Is not canal conveyance used?—Much of the street cleansing is taken down
the canals.
Do the contractors in general pay for the deposit of the refuse of
streets?—They would pay if they could get places of deposit near their
work; but all the places out to the outskirts, where any refuse whatever
could be deposited, are built upon.
Do not the men sometimes get rid of the surface sweepings into the
sewers?—Yes; they do when it is in a liquid state, and when they are not
watched.
Do you happen to know what is the expense of cleansing a street of a
given length?—I once contracted to remove the stuff from Bond-street
away; each cleansing took four teams and two stands, as it is called; or
two teams and one stand, that is, two two horse carts, and one single
horse cart standing to be loaded two days in the winter time. The cost
of cartage in the winter season for cleansing that street was about
5_l._ for each cleansing. It was cleansed less frequently than weekly:
that street is Macadamised. In the summer-time the expense would be less
than one-half. The expense of cleansing the whole of Marylebone, that
is, the expense of cartage, is about 2,200_l._ per annum, the parish
finding the sweepers.
4.—_Extract from the Report of_ FOURCROY _and others, showing the
Calculation of the Extent of Pollution of the Seine from the Discharge
of the Refuse of the Streets of Paris_.
“Not to neglect the details into which the Ministry desire us to enter,
we observe that the maximum of daily street-sweepings is, in winter, 684
cubic metres; the minimum is 410; the average is 547.
“On the other hand, the velocity of the waters of the Seine, measured at
their lowest level, being 6 decimetres 5 centimetres a second, and the
profile of the Seine, measured also at low water, at the bridge of the
Revolution, being 118 metres, we observe that there results, supposing
an uniform velocity in the whole mass, a flow of water of 76 cubic
metres a second; and in one day a flow of water 9,600 times greater at
low water than the most considerable volume of the street-sweepings of
Paris for the same space of time. This volume of water would be 16,015
times greater than that of the street-sweepings, if compared with the
minimum of these last; that is to say, with the sweepings in summer, or
the time at which the waters of the Seine are lowest. Any error in the
calculation, arising from the inequality of the velocity in the
different parts of the column formed by the current, is too amply
compensated by other circumstances to need our consideration.
“To this is to be added, that the season when the street-sweepings are
greatest, necessarily accords, all other things being equal, with the
period when the water is highest and most rapid, as the period of low
water answers to that when the refuse is least; and admitting the
preceding calculations, the volume of water would be more than 16,000
times greater than the street-sweepings; and this proportion would
increase considerably when the water is highest, by reason of the double
proportion of height and velocity.
“It is to be further considered, that a great portion of these sweepings
being insoluble in the water, would become precipitated, and unite with
the mud; that a larger portion still, deposited unequally on the two
banks, would never reach the bleaching-grounds, or the places where the
water is drawn, and that consequently their possible relation to the
water used in the city, reduces itself to a quantity excessively small,
and absolutely inappreciable.”
5.—_Communication from_ CAPTAIN VETCH, _of the Royal Engineers, on the
Structural Arrangements of New Buildings, and Protection of the Public
Health_.
DEAR SIR,—Agreeable to promise, I forward the following observations on
the improvement of large towns, as affecting the health, economy, and
comfort of the inhabitants, and so far as these depend on structural
arrangement.
The points requiring the attention of the engineer and architect may be
stated as follows:—_complete ventilation_, _complete drainage_, ample
sewerage, ample supply of water, and lastly, a ready and good
communication between the various portions of the town.
I should have commenced my observations with the subject of drainage as
the first in point of order were a new district or town to be built, but
as both drainage, and ventilation, and communication, &c., depend so
much on the arrangement of the streets, it may not be superfluous to
premise something on that head. It will be sufficiently obvious that
where towns are constructed on a regular plan with straight streets, the
communication, ventilation, and drainage is comparatively easy, and far
more effectual than under contrary circumstances; but it unfortunately
happens that our large towns contain many narrow, crooked streets, with
little or no arrangement, and though it may not be practicable
materially to mend what we now find so bad, we cannot fail to perceive
that a little timeous system and arrangement would have avoided many
evils we now complain of, with a less structural expense and a much
improved value of property to the owners.
Many or most of the towns, both in British and Spanish America, are
formed on regular plans, commencing with a square as a nucleus, to the
faces of which the streets (as they rise) are made parallel, so that
whatever may be the extent of the town the increments take place in
regular order, until stopped by some natural obstruction; and though it
may be true we cannot now enjoy the good effect of any such original
precaution, yet as respects the extension or future increments of our
cities and towns, much benefit may still be derived by resorting to
system; and though we cannot now remodel what has been built by
proceeding regularly from a central point to the circumference, yet we
may adopt an external line or periphery as a basis of operation for the
construction of the future extension of the town on a regular plan or
system.
It is fortunate for the metropolis that there existed some large
landowners in its vicinity, as the families of Bedford, Grosvenor, and
Portman, whose taste and spirit corresponded with their means, and that
large portions of the increments of London consequently possess all the
advantages that a well-considered system of utility could require; and
the benefit of such a circumstance will be best felt by contemplating
what effects a contrary proceeding would have produced; and further, the
plans pursued by the above-named families have not only been highly
beneficial in themselves, but they have served to stimulate the small
proprietors in their vicinity to the same useful ends; and what seems to
be wanted from the authority of the state is the means of ensuring such
beneficial measures in all cases, or at least protection against
antagonist or vicious proceedings in the owners of land adjoining towns.
It will not fail to be remarked that the increments of London just
alluded to have been constructed chiefly for the abodes of the wealthy,
who can generally protect themselves, and remove from any noxious
neighbourhood. But the state, as the natural guardian of the poor, is
the more called upon to interfere with its authority to see that the
streets and houses intended for the labouring classes are constructed on
comfortable and sanitary principles.
Most of our large towns have increased upon small, irregular nuclei, and
received their increments chiefly from buildings erected along the roads
branching into the country, presenting so many main streets radiating
from a centre, but leaving the intervening spaces to be irregularly and
imperfectly filled up at subsequent periods as chance or necessity
directed, and in this manner has arisen the great defect (to be
generally observed) of a good lateral connexion between the great
radiating streets.
So great indeed is the above defect that it is often difficult to pass
from one site in the skirts of a town to an adjacent one without passing
towards the centre of the town by one radiating street and returning by
another; this defective construction of towns is the natural result when
they extend without any reference to a general plan or public
convenience, and the mode which, in my opinion, would best restore the
condition of a town so constructed to a commodious and useful state
would be as follows:
I would propose, in the first instance, to connect all the radiating
streets of the town by straight lines drawn as near to the mass of
buildings in the town as the vacant or unbuilt ground would admit of;
this operation would have the effect of inclosing the town in an
irregular polygon, upon each side of which, as a normal line, I would
propose to lay out the future streets, one series of which would be
parallel to the normal lines, and another series would be perpendicular
to them, and in this manner the future increments of the town would
proceed on a fixed and uniform system, and would render the lateral
lines of communication as effective as the others, and would afford at
the same time increased facilities for ventilation and sewerage, and for
the supplies of water, gas, &c.; and proceeding on this system, it may
fully be anticipated that the building sites would become much more
valuable to their owners than if they remained to be laid out by
individual caprice on a disjointed plan. It would be valuable in most
cases that the normal polygon should be formed into a series of streets
of ample dimensions, fit for the reception of public buildings,
particularly schools; and occurring (as it would do) as the nearest
great lateral line of communication to the irregular mass of the town,
it would serve to do much of the duty in way of communication and
ventilation which the interior mass had left undone, and was unable to
effect, and might answer as the great respiratory of the town, and would
be well adapted to serve, if wide enough, and planted, for alamedas, or
public walks.
In London, the line of the New Road and City Road furnishes almost the
only sample the metropolis possesses of polygon lines of communication,
and the utility of the sample is duly felt and appreciated. In Paris the
line of the Boulevards presents a favourable specimen of the convenience
and comfort of such a construction of streets.
The advantage of adhering to system in laying out new towns, or
additions to old towns, will be much enhanced when we take into
consideration the means of supplying water, gas, &c. to the houses; and
as the application of science and machinery becomes more extended in
administering to the comforts of towns, it is manifest the more regular
the field of their action the more efficacious and economical will be
the results. On the score of ventilation, as well as for other
conveniences, it is important the streets should intersect and not abut
on each other, that the currents of air may have free escape.[49]
One of the greatest evils arising from towns extending at caprice,
without reference to any general plan, is the vast expense that
subsequently arises when necessity demands communications to be made
through crowded masses of buildings; such events are of frequent
occurrence in the metropolis and other large towns, and so great is the
outlay to remedy what might have been avoided, that no measures proposed
for the improvement of towns merit such deep attention as these; and it
has sometimes occurred to me, that instead of applying the funds to
enlarging the leading thoroughfares, the object would in many cases be
better served by forming entirely new communications through the worst
constructed and less costly sites. In this manner we should have two
good communications instead of one; we should open the means of
communication, ventilation, and sewerage to places where at present they
exist most imperfectly, and we should expunge from the map of the town a
number of noxious, ill-ventilated ruinous buildings, the seats of dirt,
disease, and demoralization.
Annexed is a plan of the town of Birmingham, on which is traced a study
or design for the future increments of that town on the principles above
proposed, which will serve to illustrate the views of the writer. The
figure P P P P represents the normal polygon.
_Increments._—It is hardly to be expected that any very uniform plan of
building can be rigidly adhered to; moral as well as physical
difficulties may demand departure from regularity in the construction of
the future increments of a town, particularly where the field to be
occupied is extensive; but so long as the general principles are adhered
to, and the new streets proceeded with, upon a general preconceived and
authorized plan, all the needful objects may be attained; and it has
occurred to me that the mode most likely to give satisfaction to the
inhabitants would be for the municipal authorities to offer a premium
for the best design for the extension of the town, and of leaving the
selection to the majority of the ratepayers.
TOWN OF BIRMINGHAM,
_To illustrate the mode proposed for constructing the future increments
of an irregular Town, upon principles of general convenience and
utility._
[Illustration: _Standidge & Co. Litho. London_]
Proprietors of large spaces of ground, or a combination of small ones,
might also claim and be authorized to form and execute their own plans,
provided always that they were previously submitted to examination and
approval by properly constituted authorities.
It has been omitted to mention, that towns built on a regular plan, and
upon sanitary and commodious principles, are much less liable to the
accidents of fire, and the consequent loss of life and property; and
when such do occur, the facility of extinguishing them is much greater;
and one might also venture to predict that it will be found that the new
town of Edinburgh has suffered less from fire than any other town in
Great Britain.
Prevention against fire is a subject well meriting consideration when
treating of the improvement of towns. It would seem that fires more
particularly occur in large public and private buildings, as for
instance, the Albion Mills, the theatres of Drury-lane and
Covent-garden, the Houses of Parliament, the Great Armoury in the Tower,
Royal Exchange, &c.; and it would be well to provide that all such
buildings should be detached, as well as manufactories and all buildings
containing steam-engines: but previous to legislating on the subject it
would be desirable to collect the statistics of conflagration, which
might readily be obtained from the fire-insurance offices.
_Ventilation._—In new towns, or the increments of old towns, good
ventilation will be best secured by attending to the principles laid
down for the construction of such.
The noxious ingredients which must exist more or less in the atmospheres
of all large towns may be dissipated by currents of air, or diluted by
access to large open spaces, while the origin of the evil may be much
reduced by a good system of sewerage.
For the removal of noxious vapours existing in crowded towns the
following points deserve attention:—
1. The conversion of blind alleys into thoroughfares.
2. The continuation of leading streets through blocks of houses on which
at present they abut.
3. The opening of wide and straight streets through the meanest, most
complex, and crowded parts of cities; this will prove the most important
measure for meeting the object in view; and what merits the next
consideration is the preservation of such good and healthy avenues as
already exist free from encroachments: for it has happened in the
metropolis while exertions were making in some districts to open wide
streets, in other districts a contrary system was at work. The New and
City Roads, the most commodious avenue in the vicinity of London for
length, width, useful and healthy communication, is in a constant
process of invasion, as may be noted more particularly in the vicinities
of Tottenham-court Road and King’s-cross; and unless some measures are
taken to preserve this noble respiratory of the metropolis, it is to be
feared in a short time its character will be entirely changed.
4. Another mode of improving the air of towns is to open squares, or
public walks, or gardens, by the removal of some of the buildings, by
which means a reservoir of pure air is created, and in this manner the
city of Seville was essentially benefited; the streets are there
numerous, narrow, and dirty, but the city, abounding in large convents,
the removal of some of them, and the conversion of their ample sites
into piazzas or squares, afforded the air and space so much required for
the public health.
In London there are some institutions that might be advantageously
removed to the suburbs or skirts of the town, such as the Charter-house
School and the Fleet Prison, and their sites converted into open
squares; but if such operations are too costly and difficult, we may at
least guard against the converse operation, viz., the covering of open
sites with masses of buildings. Thus we have seen in recent times the
gardens of Lincoln’s-inn and Gray’s-inn invaded; and we had lately a
proposition to convert Lincoln’s-inn-square into piles of buildings, and
to demolish what no art can supply, the finest reservoir of air which
the metropolis offers to a crowded neighbourhood.
5. The circulation of pure air would be much increased by pulling down
all dead walls, and by substituting iron railings in their stead; and
too much credit cannot be given for what has already been effected in
this respect in the neighbourhood of Knightsbridge, &c.
6. The prohibition of all burials in the metropolis and other large
towns, and the consequent diffusion of unwholesome effluvia.
_Drainage and Sewerage._—As towns become more crowded, the value of good
drainage and sewerage as a sanitary measure becomes the more apparent;
and as the means of draining the site of a town above and below the
surface is to be effected in part by the same means as the sewerage or
removal of the liquid filth, the subject becomes of great importance,
and second only to the choice of the site of the town and distribution
of its streets; and if a _due regard to system_ has been shown to be so
desirable in the one case, it is no less so in the other, and before any
buildings are commenced the plan of drainage should be matured.
In order to arrive at a good system of drainage for a piece of ground
intended to be built upon, or in a town where the sewerage requires
improvement, a necessary step in the process would be to add to the plan
of the town lines of equal altitudes, drawn at every two or three feet
of elevation, which would present at one view the means of comparing the
levels over the whole extent of the town; they would show the deepest
valleys where the main sewers would most conveniently run, and the most
efficient mode of combining the several classes of drains, so that the
declivities might be turned to the best account; in addition, the plan
should be so far geological as to show the boundaries of the strata, as
a body of marl or clay often upholds a quantity of water which might
prove injurious as a building site if not previously tapped.