The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-01-03 00:00:00

THE DRAINAGE OF THE HOUSE OF
PARLIAMENT.

The offensive odours which were much noticed in
the Chamber itself and in the lobbies of the House of
Commons daring the past summer, have now been
traced to thgir source. A most careful examination
of the neighbourhood and of the drainage of the Par-
liamentaiy buildings has been made under the auspices
of the Local Government Board. A high official of
that department has inspected the drains in person.
It was supposed that the odours might be wafted by
westerly winds from the low parts of Westminster, or
that they might proceed from the burning of heaps of
refuse which sometimes takes place in the neighbour-
hood. The small committee of the House itself,
which sat and took evidence at the close of the session,
found out nothing. Its report was singularly unin-
structive and fruitless. Scientific examination has,
however, revealed the cause of the effluvia to be
much nearer and more serious than was conjectured.
The main drainage of the House of Commons is
very defective. The chief sewer is enormously large,
and out of prvortion to the requirements of the
buildings. It runs across the Speaker's yard and then
along the south side of Palace-yard, and join the main
artery of the metropolitan drainage in Bridge-street.
This chief Parliamentary sewer is almost large enough
fora man to walk upright in, and has actually been
traversed by the officials conducting the examination.
Close to the point where the sewer passes under
Palace-yard, there is a sudden drop of 18 inches in
the level. Beyond this point and for some 60 or 70
feet there is, and apparently has long been, a collec-
tion of stagnant and offensive deposit of the worst
kind. This alone is sufficient to cause the odours
which were so remarked last summer. Again, the
average height of the sewage stream in the main
Bridge-street drain is three feet. The Parliamentary
sewer discharges itself into this only eighteen inches
above the bottom of the main drain. There is,
therefore, a constant back flow of the sewage into the
Parliamentary drain, whenever the main stream is over
18 inches in depth. A curious instance of the perverse
blundering which often neutralises the most careful pre-
cautions, is found in the fa:A that the committee were
under the impression that a thorough ventilation was
established by means of the shaft that runs from tlie
chief Parliamentary sewer up into the Clock Tower. It
may not be generally known that an enormous furnace
is kept, like the vestal fires, always burning in the
Clock Tower, night and day, during the Session of
Parliament. With this the drain ventilitor is
connected in order that a strong current
of air may be continually drawn upwards towards
the purifying flames. It is now found, however, that the
other end of the sewer has been hermetically closed,
as if on purpose to counteract the eect of the fire,
and shaft. The recommendations of the Local Govern-
ment Board will probably include the substitution of
a much smaller drain, two or three feet in diameter,
and its entry into the main sewer above the line of
sewage. It is very satisfactory that the painstaking
investigations of the officials engaged have discovered
the cause of a sanitary defect that might easily have
become a serious danger to the health of the represen-
tatives of the nation.—England.