View report page

31
WATER SUPPLY AND WATER SERVICE.
With the exception of the narrow strip lying between Albany Street and
Regent's Park, St. Pancras is supplied with water on the constant system, and
separate flush cisterns or water waste preventors for closets are therefore in general
use.
With the water-supply in the hands of a public body a better prospect would
be offered for improvements in flushing. Flushing cisterns for closets should be
limited to a maximum of three gallons, and a minimum of two, instead of as at
present being restricted to a maximum of two gallons, and frequently considerably
under this. It is to the interests of water companies to encourage the uso of the
smallest sized flush-cisterns and to decline to acknowledge or stamp any cistern
exceeding two gallons in capacity.
A public body would probably also afford greater facilities for sewer-flushing.
The efficiency of flushing lies not in the long-continued flow of a moderate quantity
of water, but in the sudden discharge of a huge volume. In more than one large
town, openings in the sewers are carried up to the surface, and down these large
openings several tons of water are discharged suddenly from a water-van,
driven to and stationed over the mouth. But the construction at the heads of
sewers of underground automatic tanks to contain two or three tons of water,
would be a still more satisfactory method of sewer flushing.
Public Baths and Washhouses.— The public washing and bathing establishments
in Whitfield Street, Tottenham Court Road, and in King Street, High
Street, Camden Town, continue to serve the purpose for which they were intended,
but it would be a great advantage if baths and washhouses on a smaller scale were
attached by the owners to every collection of Block Dwellings.
DRAINAGE AND SEWERAGE.
In the month of October, your Vestry resolved that the laying of drains and
the examination and amendment of all underground drainage should be supervised
by your Works Department, but that drainage above ground and works connected
therewith, other than underground drainage, remain under the supervision of your
Sanitary Department.
In order that this division might successfully work, your Vestry adopted fixed
Regulations for House Drainage, as a guide to the Officers of both Departments.
Regulations respecting House Drainage.
(1.) That all drains be constructed according to deposited plans, to be approved
previously by the Surveyor.
(2.) All drains shall be made of glazed stoneware or cast-iron pipes. When
stoneware pipes are used they shall be socket pipes of the best quality, and shall
be jointed with cement made of two parts of clean sharp sand and one part of
best Portland cement by measure, and so as to be watertight, and where fixed
inside the house shall be embedded in concrete at least six inches in thickness
all round, made with one part of clean sharp sand, five parts of clean ballast,
and one part of the best Portland cement; main drains shall be at least six
inches iu internal diameter and branch drains at least four inches in internal
diameter. When cast-iron pipes are used they shall be socket pipes of best
quality and heavy metal, and coated internally with Dr. Angus Smith's or