Faded London: drains

Friday, 17 October 2008

Of Drains and Stink-Pipes

Put a peg on your nose if you must, but it's about time we tackled the emotive world of the "Main Drain Stink Pipe"... Well that certainly seems to be how they are referred to in general conversation. Not that the subject comes up much though and to be honest I've a feeling it's a bit of a misnomer. After all could it really be possible that the manufacturers of London's sewage system would build in, at regular intervals, outlet pipes to waft the sickly -sweet hints of sewage across the neighbourhood? I doubt it. Actually, I believe that they were installed almost as 'safety valves' to prevent any dangerous increase in air pressure in sections of the tunnel. Although there seems to be pretty much a standard design, the ones I've found do have interesting variations

Let's start with the first one I spotted

Merton Road, Wimbledon
As proof of how innocuous these pipes can be I had walked past this several times before I suddenly noticed it. I was taken by its relatively ornate design when, let's be honest, a straight pipe would have done just as well. Yet there it is - a hint of Victorian over-design nestling quite happily in its modern setting.

Although there are some cracks in the iron these days, you can see how the Victorians felt thatn even a basic pipe would benefit from a little ornamentation.

Southey Road, South Wimbledon
Not too far away from my first spotting (and possibly even on the same main drain?) is my favourite stink-pipe. Two for the price of one, this unit was adapted to take an early electric light. Now very much defunct, I believe this design would date back to the early years of the last century, with the small pices of mirror reflecting the light back on the assers-by below

Not much left of the mosaic of mirrored glass these days...

The ivy's starting to take a hold around the 'collar' area but a plastic id tag is still visible

...as is the still ring of spikes designed to deter any would-be lightbulb thief!

Lambton Road, Raynes Park
This seems to be of the same design as the one on Merton Road, but what I like here is the fact that the paint-job only goes half-way up. Could it be that the painter wasn't allowed to go any higher due to Health & Safety regulations about streatching too far above your head?

Vicarage Road, Hampton Wick
This beauty looks as though it should either have a flame coming out of the top, like some strange lantern, or lots of Victorian children tying ropes to the top. It really does seem an evocative object and I've no idea what either the spurs were for...

...or the basket -effect near the top. A subtle dispersal of faint aromas possibly?

Still there's a nice bit of cast-iron scroll-work near the bottom and that'll do me.

Garrat Lane, Wandsworth.
Here's a whopper! Tucked behind an advertising hoarding I couldn't see the base of this one, but it was by far the tallest I'd seen. Looks a goody though...

Tuesday, 30 October 2007

Coalholes, Manholes, Lightwells and Drains

This is a section for all those wonderful lumps of ironmongery that we spend all our time walking over without really taking the time to look a little closer. Just walk ten yards down any street and marvel at the variety of lids you pass by... there's a whole new world under there!

Luckily I'm not the only one who finds them interesting as can be seen by these photos and the text that puts them in their historical context. Although he travels the world on this Ruavista site it seems London was the main birthplace of the industrial manhole cover, although Japan seems to have the most striking modern examples. Well, now that you're up to speed on the whole topic have a look at some local lids

Church Road SW19 Originally this was probably a coal hole that also let some light in. Now there's no coal and it leaks whenever it rains! No markings sadly...