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6
Rainfall conducted
to
Sewers not
intended for
Storm waters
As regards the Birkbeck instate, tne outlet into the Country
Ditch near the Beckenham Road, at present used for sewage
may be retained for the overflow of storm-waters, until some
better provision is made; but still the chief difficulty in
making arrangements for the complete drainage of these
districts is in dealing with the rainfall during heavy storms.
By the existing sewers and drains, which have in some
cases been constructed along the natural water-courses, the
rainfall of a large portion of the land occupied by houses and
gardens in the extensive suburbs of Anerley, Penge, and
Sydenham (including a portion of Beckenham Sewerage
Area), is conducted, with the sewage, to the Penge and Bell
Green, and the Sydenham Sewers.
This arrangement produces no inconvenience during a
moderate rainfall; but neither the Penge and Bell Green
Sewer, nor the Sewer of the Metropolitan Board, which it
joins [the Ravensbourne and Sydenham Main Sewer], was
intended, or is of sufficient size for carrying storm rainfall.
That the Metropolitan system of sewers generally was
intended to carry only a small portion of a heavy rainfall, is
clearly stated in Sir J. W. Bazalgette's paper on the Main
Drainage of London, read at the Institution of Civil
Engineers, in 1865.
The Penge and Bell Green Sewer, 3 feet 9 inches high,
and 2 feet 6 inches wide, and the Sydenham Sewer, 3 feet
high and 2 feet wide, join the Metropolitan system at Bell
Green, whence, for a distance of about three-quarters of a
mile towards the outlet, the Metropolitan Main Sewer is only
the same size as the Penge and Bell Green Sewer, and both
the last-mentioned sewers, together about two miles in length,
are occasionally filled to overflowing.
flooding at
Peng.
These floodings during storms caused, until recently,
serious damage in the cellars and lowest floors of some of the
houses at Penge, and having been instructed by the
Lewisham Board to deal with the matter, so far as it affected
the Hamlet, after carrying out some improvements in the
Penge and Bell Green Sewer, I made surveys and constructed