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51
In this case there were special difficulties to be dealt with. The room is
situated on the first floor, and during the busy part of the day is occupied by
a very large number of persons.
The only way in which ventilation could be successfully carried out was
to adopt a system of changing the air by mechanical means. A fan fixed in
the basement draws air down a shaft from roof level; the air, heated in the
winter and cooled in the summer, is then forced through a system of tubes
and distributed in various parts of the room. In addition there is a fan in
the roof which extracts the foul air from a number of openings in the ceiling.
OLD WALBROOK SEWER, DOWGATE HILL.
In the course of inspection of the drainage of premises in Cloak Lane, a
portion of the Old Walbrook Sewer in a ruinous state was found to be
receiving the drainage of several houses.
This old sewer was on the line of the old Wall Brook, and formed the
boundary of the Ward of Walbrook; for the greater part of its length it ran
under the premises between Cloak Lane and Upper Thames Street.
The condition being dangerous to health, arrangements have been made
for the redraining of the premises in question into the sewers under the public
way, the Corporation in some of the cases paying part of the cost of the new
drains. The work is practically completed, and the old sewer filled in and
bricked up.
In this connection the following extract from "Old and New London," by
Walter Thornbury, has some historical interest:—
"The rivulet, or running water," says Maitland, "denominated
"Walbrook, ran through the middle of the City above ground, till
"about the middle of the fourteenth century, when it was arched over,
"since which time it has served as a common sewer wherein, at the
"depth of sixteen feet under St. Mildred's Church steeple, runs a
"great and rapid stream.
"It hath been a common speech," says Stow (Elizabeth), "that
"when Walbrook did lie open barges were rowed out of the Thames,
"or towed up so far, and therefore the place hath ever since been
"called ' The Old Barge.' "
The site ot this place is now known as Barge Yard. It is a cul-de-sac,
entered from Queen Victoria Street. In the course of some drainage works
executed a few years ago at No. 11, Queen Victoria Street, the workmen
came upon some piling that apparently had formed part of this old wharf.