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6
Beckenham Tongue of Land.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Board during the
year has been the introduction and passing of a Bill in Parliament
for effecting the drainage of the Beckenham Tongue of
Land through the sewers of this District, and securing an adequate
contribution from the Parish of Beckenham towards the cost of
the sewers.
The Parish of Lewisham and Hamlet of Penge, constituting
the Lewisham District, are severed from each other except at the
extreme western boundary, near the Crystal Palace, by an intervening
Tongue of Land within the Parish of Beckenham, not
included in the Metropolis as defined by the Metropolis Management
Acts. At the date of the constitution of the Board there
were scarcely any sewers in the Hamlet, and such as there were
only had an outfall into the Pool river, resulting in a serious
nuisance as the number of inhabitants increased.
The attention of the Board was early (1857) directed to
the necessity for constructing a sewer to convey the sewerage
from Penge to the Ravensbourne and Sydenham main sewer at
Bell Green, Lower Sydenham, and an arrangement was at that
time contemplated for giving the intervening part of Beckenham
the benefit of the sewer, and levying a contribution from their
Parish towards its cost. The Board were, however, prevented
from constructing a sewer by the Metropolitan Board withholding
their assent to the same, they being advised that the
Metropolis Management Act, 1855, did not empower Vestries and
District Boards to construct sewers beyond the limits of the
Metropolis.
In the same year (1857) the Metropolitan Board had under
consideration a Bill for amending, in numerous particulars, the
Metropolis Management Act, and this Board hoped to overcome
the difficulty they were met with by the insertion in such Bill of
a clause for includiug in the Lewisham District the intervening
part of Beckenham, and making it—for all the purposes of the
Act—part of the Hamlet of Penge. This course was, however,
disapproved by the Metropolitan Board; but they introduced at
the instance of this Board, a clause (Sec. 58) in the Bill which
became law as the "Metropolis Management Amendment Act,