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64
RIVER THAMES.
The condition of the River Thames daring the past year has been fairly
good.
I have received no complaints as to smells arising therefrom, but no further
marked improvement in the condition of the River can be expected to take
place until the sewage effluent poured into the Thames at the Northern Outfall
at Barking and the Southern Outfall at Crossness respectively has
undergone a more satisfactory process of purification.
To give an idea of the improvement which has taken place in the condition
of the water, the words of a Cabinet Minister may be quoted, who, writing
in July some fifty years ago from the House of Commons, stated that "the
Thames was, as usual, pestilential, and that it ivas under careful consideration
to remove the Legislature elsewhere, probably in the direction of St. James\"
In present years the Terrace of the House of Commons, during the month of
July, is thronged with Members of Parliament with their lady friends
partaking of tea and other light refreshments; this clearly indicates that there
is not much cause for complaint now on account of the condition of the River
in the vicinity of Westminster.
The condition of the water in the Docks has been very fair; the Millwall
Dock, owing to continued dredging and repeated change of water, has given
rise to no complaint.
On July 22nd, when landing at Blackfriars Pier, I observed an enormous
quantity of human excrement floating in the River. On enquiry I found that
this had been noticed for a fortnight, and that it had come from the storm outfall
of the London County Council, which discharge under the northern end of the
bridge. I immediately communicated with the Thames Conservancy by
telephone, and an Inspector was sent to confirm my observation. The facts
were also forwarded to the Thames Conservancy by letter, and the Secretary
informed me that he had communicated with the London County Council on
the subject, with the result that the discharge of sewage ceased forthwith.
At the time of my observations the tide was quite low, and the incoming tide
would carry the collection of tilth higher up the River to be. in all probability,
deposited on the foreshore.
On the 13th September I received information that the dead body of a
whale was stranded on the shore in the vicinity of Crossness. The carcass
was removed and destroyed at once.