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76
METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF SHOREDITCH.
PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT.
Shoreditch Town Hall, London, E.C.,
10th February, 1905.
To the Chairman and Members of the Health Committee.
Gentlemen,
SEWER VENTILATION AND INTERCEPTING TRAPS.
We beg to submit for your consideration our views on the subjects dealt with in
the reports of the Borough Surveyors of Lewisham and Shoreditcth, dated November
4th and December 22nd, 1904, respectively, and the recommendations contained
therein.
As instructed we have more especially directed attention to those portions of the
reports attacking the use of interceptors.
The Borough Surveyor of Lewisham, in his report, opens with the statement that
"the whole question of the ventilation of sewers is surrounded by difficulties and unfortunately
engineers hold very different opinions as to the best means of dealing with
the matter." After referring to the unsatisfactory results which have apparently
attended the use of columns erected for the purpose of ventilating sewers and preventing
nuisance, he goes on to deal with the question of ventilating them through
the house drains. If we do not misunderstand him he suggests as a partial mitigation
of the nuisance that the sewer ventilators should be put much nearer together and that
efforts should be made to obtain the repeal of the London County Council bye-law
with reference to interceptors, his theory apparently being that if the numbers of openings
in the roadways were increased, and the ventilation pipes of the house drains were
used for ventilating the sewers, there would be fewer complaints of smells in the roadways.
In the last paragraph but one of his report, he directs attention to the fact that
although the interceptor was not made compulsory until the passing of the bye-laws in
1900, many of the local authorities of the Metropolis insisted on their use, whilst in
Lewisham not only was their use not insisted on, but builders were advised not to use
them, and he considers that this action has been justified over and over again by the
low death rate in the Parish of Lewisham.
The Borough Surveyor of Shoreditch, after discussing the question of sewer ventilation
from a Shoreditch point of view, devotes some eight paragraphs to attacking the
use of intercepting traps in connection with house drains. He concludes his report by
advising that in regard to the placing of surfaoe ventilators, the communication from the
Lewisham Borough Council be received, that is, he does not recommend that the number
of openings in the roadways should be increased, but that as regards intercepting
traps, efforts should be made to obtain the repeal of the bye-law referred to.