View report page

Your Medical Officer raised no objection to the granting of temporary licences
in respect of the above-named houseboats and with your Worshipful Committee's
approval, the Town Clerk was requested to inform the Clerk to the Benfleet
Urban District Council accordingly.
POLLUTION OF THE THAMES
The "Municipal Journal" of the 4th March, 1955, carried an editorial which your Chairman
considered would be of interest to your Worshipful Committee and it was accordingly quoted in
full in the Monthly Report that was presented to the Committee on the 1st April, 1955, and as a
result your Medical Officer was asked to report to Thames Pollution at their next meeting, which
he did in the following terms:—
"The Editor of the 'Municipal Journal' concludes his editorial comment as follows
'Meanwhile, the situation will remain tolerable only so long as there is an adequate
flow of water into the Thames below Teddington: upon this forward surge
of water over the weir depends the river's ability to cleanse itself. Thanks to
exceptionally wet weather in recent months, this flow is now strong enough to
induce a certain dilution and down-river movement of effluent. But if there is any
repetition of the drought of the 1930's — and a warm summer is long overdue —
the flow from Teddington, additionally weakened by larger abstractions by the
Metropolitan Water Board, will become sluggish. Emergency measures might then
become necessary to safeguard public health.'
"The conditions of drought to which the editor refers would simply aggravate the dangers to
public health which are ever present from the pollution of the Thames, pollution which has
increased considerably since the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal in 1908 reported that
both the surface and the bottom of the Thames at all stages of the tide were largely de-aerated
from North Woolwich to beyond Grays as a result of sewage contamination.
"A much earlier observer than the Royal Commission was Professor Faraday who wrote to the
'Times' in the summer of 1855, as follows
'Sir,
I traversed this day by steam-boat the space between London and Hungerford
Bridges between half-past one and two o'clock; it was low water, and I
think the tide must have been near the turn. The appearance and smell of the
water forced themselves at once on my attention. The whole of the river was
an opaque pale brown fluid. In order to test the degree of opacity, I tore up
some white cards into pieces, moistened them so as to make them sink easily
below the surface, and then dropped some of the pieces into the water at every
pier the boat came to; before they had sunk an inch below the surface they were
indistinguishable, though the sun shone brightly at the time; and when the
pieces fell edgeways the lower part was hidden from sight before the upper
part was under water. This happened at St. Paul's Wharf, Blackfriars Bridge,
Temple Wharf, Southwark Bridge and Hungerford; and I have no doubt would have
occurred further up and down the river. Near the bridges the feculence rolled up
in clouds so dense that they were visible at the surface, even in water of this
kind.
'The smell was very bad, and common to the whole of the water; it was the
same as that which now comes up from the gully-holes in the streets; the whole
river was for the time a real sewer. Having just returned from out of the country
air, I was, perhaps, more affected by it than others; but I do not think I could
have gone on to I.ambeth or Chelsea, and I was glad to enter the streets for an
atmosphere which, except near the sink-holes, I found much sweeter than that
on the river.
'I have thought it a duty to record these facts, that they may be brought to the
attention of those who exercise power or have responsibility in relation to the
condition of our river; there is nothing figurative in the words I have employed,
or any approach to exaggeration; they are the simple truth. If there be sufficient
authority to remove a putrescent pond from the neighbourhood of a few simple
dwellings, surely the river which flows for so many miles through London ought
not to be allowed to become a fermenting sewer. The condition in which I saw
the Thames may perhaps be considered as exceptional, but it ought to be an
impossible state, instead of which I fear it is rapidly becoming the general
condition. If we neglect this subject, we cannot expect to do so with impunity;
nor ought we to be suprised if, ere many years are over, a hot season gives us
sad proof of the folly of our carelessness.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
M. FARADAY.'
Royal Institution, July 7.
"Three years after Faraday wrote this letter, it is recorded that Queen Victoria went down the
Thames by Royal Barge in 1858 in order to launch "The Great Eastern". Her Majesty kept a
scented handkerchief firmly to her nose throughout the journey.
29