Sydenham drainage, &c. Reports and estimates, / by Messrs Donaldson and Gotto, Assistant Surveyors. 2nd June, 1849.

  • London (England). Metropolitan Commission of Sewers.
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sydenham drainage, &c. Reports and estimates, / by Messrs Donaldson and Gotto, Assistant Surveyors. 2nd June, 1849. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    servants; and they further induce premature decay and consequent depreciation of value in house property, for which no ordinary house or surface drainage provides a complete remedy. These remarks refer with particular force to the wet clay soil of Sydenham, which is about to he so extensively covered with dwelling-houses. Those who have had experience in this neighbourhood have discovered the necessity of such a precaution, although the method adopted is by no means so efficient as, and is very much more expensive than that which we have to propose. A proprietor of some extent has laid under the foundations of the houses he has recently erected, and others he is now building, brick drains of 12 inches diameter for this purpose. It is proposed to afford facilities for effecting such improvements in combina¬ tion with the arrangement for land drainage already suggested, namely, by the roadside drains. Agricultural land drainage and the subsoil drainage for the sites of houses are the same in principle and practice, and differ only in degree (that is, the sites of houses would be drained more closely and elaborately than lands under culture) ; and in all suburban land-drainage operations the outfalls and general arrangements should be such as might, by laying extra lines of similar drains in any particular spot, be adapted for a building site. We do not presume to lay this down as essentially belonging to sanitary improve¬ ment, and to be carried out under all circumstances. We are speaking with reference to the soils upon which our attention is now engaged, and which requite such works. It assumes, however, a prominent place in works of improvement, when comprehen¬ sive arrangements are contemplated for land drainage in the area under the jurisdiction of the Commissioners, the general nature of the soil requiring it, while, at the same time, the metropolis is extending and encroaching in every direction on the rural parts under that jurisdiction. We have perambulated the fields and meadows, and find the herbage generally of an inferior quality, owing to the wetness of the land. We recommend that agricultural drain pipes of 1^ inches in diameter should be laid down in uncovered lands, the average width apart to be 22 feet, and the average depth 4 feet; and that for the site of a house there should be an intermediate line of such pipes, so as to lessen the distance between, one half. As nearly the whole area delineated on the plan will certainly in the course of time become building land, this proposed operation of subsoil drainage would, if executed upon the plan before recommended, be so far a preparation for its ultimate use. The cost of this work would be about 57. 5s. per acre for agricultural land, or Cs. lOd. per annum, if paid by an improvement rate, for 22 years. When intended to convert it into building ground, the expense would be 47. extra per acre, or 5s. 2^d. per annum, if the outlay were distributed over 22 years. Land of this description while under cultivation, if it be thus drained, will as such be increased in value at least 15s. per acre per annum by the improved quality and the increased quantity of the produce, and would pay nearly 15 per cent, on the outlay. It does not appear to be necessary to state in this Report the details of cost for this work over the whole district.