Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/704

Rh LONDON. 696 LONDON. of persons avail themselves of these fountains, and there is every reason to believe that they have materially aided in lessening drunkenness in the metropolitan dis- tricts. The water supply of London is carried on by various companies, whose operations are controlled by acts of parliament. By one of these they are " prohi- bited from deriving their supplies from the Thames below Teddington-lock, or from its affluents below points reached by the tide." It is to bo conveyed in covered pipes or aqueducts, and filtered before distribution for domestic use. Each company is required to keep for inspection by all who wish a map of the district in which its mains are laid, and its pumping-engines must consume their own smoke. Every inhabitant who has paid his water-rate may demand constant service. Every reservoir within 5 miles from St. Paul's in which unfiltered water is stored is required to be kept covered. 1 It has been calculated that the various companies distri- bute about 85,000,000 gallons of water to about 350,000 houses, having engines of about 8,000 horse-power, and mains and branches of about 2,200 miles in length. Their total outlay upon works has been estimated at about 8,000,000, and the water rental at about half a million per annum. The principal companies are those of the New River, the Grand Junction, the East London, the West Middlesex, the Lambeth, the Chelsea, the Southwark and Vauxhall, and the Hampstead. There are also several deep-sunk wells from which a large supply of water is obtained for brewing, chemical and manu- facturing, and other purposes. The principal of these are in Trafalgar-square, for the supply of the fountains there ; at the Reform, Conservative, and Union club- houses, the Blackwall railway, and Greenwich Hospital ; and the breweries of Reid and Co., at Liquorpond- street ; Combe and Co., Castle-street, Long Acre; Meux and Co. Tottenham-Court-road ; Truman, Hanbury, Bux- ton, and Co., Brick-lane, Spitalfields ; Barclay and Co., Southwark ; the City of London Brewery, Upper Thames- Street ; Charrington and Co., Mile-end-road, and Goding and Co., Belvedere-road, Lambeth. The New River Company has also a well, which cost 12,000 in con- structing ; and its covered storing-reservoir, in Clare- mont-square, Pentonville, has an area of 31,000 square feet, and contains three and a half millions of gallons, while its engines pump water for high service as much as 430 feet above high-water mark. One of the most important matters in regard to .the metropolis is its drainage. The polluted state of the Thames, into which it has been calculated that before the main drainage works began 80,000,000 gallons of dirty water and refuse flowed from upwards of 100 sewers and drains in its course past London, and the foul smell which it emitted during the spring and sum- mer months, have led to a system of draining which will not only improve the health of the inhabitants, but will bring considerable profits to a company which has been formed for utilising that which has hitherto only been a nuisance and a fertile source of disease. The southern outfall of the main drainage is at Crossness Point, on the Kentish side of the river, where immense works have been erected on the marsh land, near Barking Reach, and about half way between Woolwich and Erith. The quantity of sewage now brought down to the N. and S. sides of the river is estimated at 63,000,000 cubic feet per diem, the area from which it is obtained being 1174 square miles. The reservoirs into which it is received have a united area of 16 acres, and the total length of sewers already constructed is 82 miles. All that is now required to complete the work is a portion of the low-level sewer on the N. side, which will run beneath the Thames embankment under the new street from Blackfriars Bridge to the Mansion House ; and, as this is being rapidly proceeded with, this great metro- politan improvement will before long be in active opera- tion. An association under the name of the " Metropo- litan Sewage and Essex Reclamation Company" has just been formed for utilising the sewage on the N. side of London. Tho total cost of the undertaking is set down at 2,400,000, and the profits, which are ex- pected to amount to .650,000 per annum at the after deducting all the working expenses, are to belo exclusively to the company for the first four years, I for the remaining fifty of the concession which been granted to it by the Metropolitan Board Works they are to be divided equally between the < pany and the board. Many curious anecdotes nected with the sewers and those employed in are related in May hew' s valuable and intere work, " London Labour and the London Poor," articles of considerable value are not unfrequently fo' amongst the sewage, into which they have either f ' by accident, or been placed by design. Of course, in so largo a metropolis as London, fires arc of common, in fact, of almost daily occurrence; and an association, under the name of the "London Fire Brigade," has been organised since the year 1833, for the protection of life and property from the damage and accidents arising from conflagrations. The chief station of the fire brigade is in Watling Street, and there are seventeen otl tions distributed over the various districts of tin polis. Each station is provided with engines, bucket.-, hose, fire escapes, &c., and the last-named machines are wheeled out each evening to certain convenient localities, where they remain all night under the charge of :i lire- man, so as to be ready in case of any sudden emergency. Besides the hand-engines, there are several engines worked by steam power, and, on the Thames, some steam floating engines. The value of property in the metro- polis has been estimated at about 900,000,000 sterling, and the Fire Insurance offices spend 25,000 a-year in keeping up the brigade, which is composed of 128 skilled firemen under the command of one superior officer. They have a regular uniform, and, besides the regular brigade, some large manufacturing firms (the most noted on this account being Hodges' Lambeth Distillery Works) and public offices have engines and all the proper means and appliances for the extinction of fires, and their men are very active, and render great assistance to the brigade in the case of fires at their own or their neighbours' pre- mises. Many noblemen and persons of the highest rank take much interest in the matter of fires, aud are per- sonally present at them, superintending and encouraging those who arc endeavouring to extinguish them. They also give occasional entertainments to the members of the fire brigade, and use the utmost exertions to main- tain the efficiency of all such arrangements as may con- 1 duce to lessen the chances of conflagrations occunhii; within the limits of the metropolis. There is association called the "Royal Society for the Protection o: Life from Fire," of which the fire-escape conduct' attended as many as 712 fires, and rescued G8 persons in I one year. Its receipts from donations and contributions I are over 9,000, and its expenses over 8,000 per annum. I After 1st January, 1866, the management of the brigade, I and afterwards that of this Royal Society, is to be vested I in the Board of Works under the name of the '' politan Fire Brigade." The plant of the cxisi i offices is to be transferred to the Board, and they are t pay salaries, make regulations, and to be en;' enforce certain rates of contribution from the fir Government is to subsidise the Board, and it is allo 1 by the Treasury to raise a loan of 40,000 tm ; liininary expenses. The streets, shops, and public loon^ and buildings of London are lighted by gas-lain burners, and a great deal of gas is consumed in private . houses. This is supplied by about twenty eoi whose daily production is estimated at nearly 10.' cubic feet at a cost of over a million and a half per annum. The mains and pipes are laid ui roadways, and are above 2,000 miles in length. Much, complaint is made by Londoners of the price and of the gas supplied to them, and there are several on foot for reducing the former and improving the latter. The public conveyances of London an cabs, omnibuses, boats, and railways. The number of J cabs is between 5,000 and 6,000 placed on regularly- I appointed stands in the streets, and at the different rail- way stations. The tables of fares and regulations foil