The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-26 00:00:00

CESSPOOL NUISANCES.

Two persons, landlord and tenant of a house in
Fan-street, Bishopsgate, were charged by a police-
man with having caused a cesspool to be empited into
the common sewer, contrary to the Act.
The excuse made by the defendants did not at all
touch upon the main question, but merely called the
attention of the Court to the fact, that the drain bad
been made by the proprietor of the premises ten
years ago, and that the rate had been raised upon him
notwithstanding.
The policeman said it was quite impossible to
describe the offensiveness of the stench occasioned all
round thei neighbourhood by the act of which he
complained.
Mr. BLAKE said, upon the retirement of the parties
from the Court, that if the members failed to take
notice of the matter complained of there would be no
advantage derivable from the Act which had been
passed for the City, and other inhabitants would
follow their exatnple, for the purpose of evading the
expense. lie moved that the defendants be summoned
before a magistrate by the policeman, as the Act
AIRMAN said that Mr. Haywood, the sur-
veyor directed that offences of the kind were punishable by
such
authority.
Theo Commission,ldnonot
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nthraodduced prepared a
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the very subject which they were discussing, and he
thought
time.

The Surveyor then put in the following report,
which was read by the Chief Clerk :

To the Honourable the Commissioners of Sewers of
the City of London, and the Liberties thereof:
" Sewers Office, Guildhall, April 24.

" Gentlemen,—l beg to bring under the notice and
consideration of your Honourable Court a nuisance of
a very seriDus description, the perpetration of which
has lately become a very frequent occurrence. I allude
to the practice of turning the contents of cesspools into
the sewers in an undiluted and undeodorised condition.

" Recently this has occurred very continually, and in
all cases has been with ill effects. It not unfrequently
happens that the whole contents of a cesspool, which has
been a dozen or more years accumulating, is all at once
turned into a sewer, and the whole neighbourhood is for
days poisoned by the stench which, despite the traps of
the gullies, finds its way into the streets and houses,
and which is only abated by men being sent in to re-
move, and flush it away ; the effluvia is frequently so
bad from it, that men are with difficulty found to enter
the sewers for that purpose. It has also frequently oc-
curred,
that sewers which had previously been per-
fectly clean, are for a; length of twenty or thirty feet
half filled with the soil thus turned into them, which, in
its undiluted state, is with difficulty removed, and the
expense of removal is generally double or treble what it
would have cost the offenders to have emptied the cess-
pool by means of the engine•pump which you have pro-
vided for the use of the citizens for such purpose. About
this the offenders care very little, as once in the sewer,
they know it will be removed, and the expense has
hitherto been defrayed by this Commission.
" If cesspools are emptied into the sewers by means of
the cesspool pump, no ill effects are experienced; tor, in
the first place, the contents are deodorized; and, in the
second place, aro in that state of fluidity which will
enable it to ink with and be carried away by the ordi-
nary flow of the sewer. I beg to su;glbt to our
Honourable Court, as the only means of preventing this
offence, that you should make it imperative, and should
give notice to all persons making applications fur drains,
to empty their cesspools before constructing any portion
of the drainage, and that the islet to the sewer should
not be constructed before the cesspool is properly cleansed,
and known to be so by your officer; and that in the
event of the offence still in any caso being perpetrated,
the parties offending should be punished under the
clauses in the City Sewers Act for that purpose
emen, made
and provided.—l have the honour to be, gentl
your most obedient servant,
" WM. Havwoon, Surveyor."
Mr. lls,srvroon informed the Court that there were
five case which came under the class of offences
alluded to in his report within the last week.
The motion of Mr. BLAKE was agreed to unani-
mously, and the surveyor's report was ordered to be
entered in the journals.