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83
Street, York Street, and Harden's Manorway, Charlton; with
Fergus Street, Marlton Street, Coombedale Road, and parts of
Trafalgar Road, East Greenwich. The houses in some of these
districts being practically always in a water-logged condition,
and some of them have been flooded to a depth of two feet.
I have frequently visited some of the houses, and on raising some
of the floor boards have almost always found a swampy and boggy
condition of the soil beneath such floor boards. On other
occasions the sewage water has been standing some considerable
depth above the floor boards. We seem to be practically
at the mercy of the London County Council in respect to
this matter, who, however, according to my information, would
appear to be now pressing on with the provision of a new outfall
sewer on the South side of the River, which, it is anticipated, will
remedy this state of things. A very interesting sidelight was
thrown upon the extent which this flooding has occurred in this
immediate district by evidence tendered on behalf of the London
County Council, in the case of Ellis v. London County Council,
which is set out more fully below.
This evidence shows that during the years 1900 and 1901 the
flood level reached, in the outfall sewer near Church Lane,
Charlton, on at least eight occasions, a height of 7 feet or
more above Ordnance datum; on one occasion the height
measured was 11.5 feet above Ordnance datum. One has always
hitherto been under the impression that the London Building Act,
1894, Section 102, was a sufficient safeguard against having houses
erected upon very low-lying land; but in the case in question it
was shown that the floors of some of the houses were 7 feet to
7 feet 6 inches below Trinity high-water mark, and yet the Lord