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Report - - London Bridge Sewer, 2014. | UK Draining Forum | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - London Bridge Sewer, 2014.

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Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
London Bridge Sewer

It was the back end of summer and we decided to take a look in London Bridge Sewer

Siologen had always recommended this place, so one evening with adders I did just that

The two significant explored bits of this system are known as st00ps limit, and Last Bastion

It was a steamy, turdy affair and difficult to traverse at times, however it didn't disappoint :thumb


Having looked at the main drainage map I managed to locate a lid upstream in the Moorgate area

It was far from discreet night or day, but the best of a bad bunch

So, without hesitation we descended into the bowels of London once again

We dropped into barely a 5ft egg

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I decided it was a good idea to head upstream where it shrinks to 4ft;
Here a junction where 3 local sewers converge

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Siologen did once warn me that anything beyond London Wall was stoopy

LBS has many connections and this just being one of them on the Western branch

We decided to head downstream in search of the LBS main line, via this slippery 5ft egg

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Eventually we plopped out of the side pipe (below left) and into the LBS mainline at this junction

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Not the best of pics, but look up and this chamber incorporates a huge domed ceiling

As for it's purpose I'm not sure, however it's pretty impressive all the same

5.jpg



Plan A, was to head upstream

We followed the fresh towards Finsbury Circus through a sizeable 10ft egg

There is some major cross rail works going on here at the minute

The upstream line (right) is filled with all sorts of monitoring gubbins

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The incoming sewer on the left, is the Goswell Street Sewer, it heads through Barbican and up towards Pentonville

Back in the mainline heading upstream of cross rail towards Shoreditch it eventually shrinks to below 5ft

It was at this point "anything beyond London Wall is a stoop" reminded me we needed to point ourselves South


At a later date I shot up a crane in the area to see what was going on above ground

7.jpg



Back to where we emerged below Moorgate, we headed downstream

Luxury as it's back to a 10ft egg

It proved difficult grabbing pics as the lens kept misting up worse than any other system I'd been in

8.jpg



I wouldn't advise going in here when it rains

There is little in the way of escape, the few lids that exist are all in the middle of busy roads

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Continuing downstream towards the Bank of England a number of side pipes join and the sewer is lined with fibre

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London Bridge Sewer is quite unique as it's been vastly altered over the years;

With other sewers having been diverted and newer additions along the route added

The construction methods and choice of masonry constantly changing throughout

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^ In the above example the larger egg comes to an end

Here a large domed shaft to a breather amongst the hustle & bustle of King William Street above

Ahead, the sewer continues via a 6ft brick arch

You can see the multicoloured brickwork as it's been bodged together over the centuries

It started to get deeper just beyond the 2 local sewers that have also been added

These drop in from a higher level around 8ft either side of the shaft

I climbed up to see what all the fuss was about

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Sorry the pics are a bit rubbish,
my lens was steamed up and the focus mechanism was failing as well as being sprayed with a fine mist of p00p


As you can see, the 6ft brick arch snakes around Bank tube station

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Turning around, and heading downstream construction changes to a 5ft RCP

it's here, the sewer runs underneath the vaults of the Bank of England

A short distance down, the flow disappears down into the Low Level No.2 Interceptor, in the only crap pic I have

16.jpg



Beyond the oak chase boards, from the interceptor weir, the RCP continues

In order to traverse downstream, one has to pass through this fetid pit of arse porridge & H2s :thumb

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Once past the porridge and the Bank of England, it's a dry stoopy RCP as it heads towards Monument

The RCP was no doubt there to replace the crumbling brick work below the vaults
It's worth noting that in 1836 a lowly sewer worker asked the governors to meet him in the vault,
because he had identified a breach of security

Incredulously they complied, only to see the man pop up to join them through a hole in the floor by moving a few floorboards


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It's business as usual with the return of a a 12ft brick barrel as local sewers begin to dump their loads thereafter

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Within 10m it's another shape change, this time an 8ft RBP

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Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin

Further down, and deep below King William Street is this split,
where West/East branches of the London Bridge Sewer converge

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We left the stretch down to the Thames for the time being and headed up the Eastern branch which also incorporates the Shoreditch sewer

This stretch of "London Bridge Sewer" also has connections with the Nightingale & Irongate sewers

These serve the area around Aldgate and is eventually intercepted by the Low Level No.1 & No.2 sewers both in close proximity to Monument tube station and London Bridge itself

Here a large drop shaft,
which I assume was used during construction and since serves as a manhole access close to Fenchurch Street

23.jpg



The pipe diameter soon increases to a sizeable brick oval approx 12ft

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A short distance, a junction where the sewer splits at Bishopsgate

It's essentially the Shoreditch Sewer which heads up the A10 towards Shoreditch High Street and onto Haggerston

You may wonder why the flow of fresh is lacking here..

This is because it's intercepted by the Low Level No.2 a bit further up the 5ft stooper on the left split

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We continued up the right hand side of the 'split' a short distance before we reached a tumbling bay

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Up top, barely a slippery 5ft brick egg which appeared to go on for ever and a day

There was minimal flow and the occasional intermittent discharge from some side pipe further upstream

Clearly we weren't traversing up the A10 in this, ridiculous!

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Enough stooping through shit, it's no fun honest :p

We quickly headed back to the luxury of said 12ft brick oval on the downstream stretch towards father Thames

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Flow is fairly minimal after the upstream interception, with only the odd side pipe contributing

And also owing to the fact it hadn't rained for a couple of weeks

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As we head down to London Bridge, a couple of side branches connect

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It wasn't long before we reached the downstream limit just before London Bridge

Here, a large chamber which is home to 2 local sewers and a flap,
to what is assumed a further tidal outfall chamber beyond before it outfalls to the Thames

31.jpg



A ladder leads to a gallery above for inspection purposes and a manhole to the surface

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What ever remains of the flow after the last interceptor (which is minimal) in dry conditions,
disappears under the gantry and off into the Low Level No.1 beyond

33.jpg
 

Oxygen Thief

Admin
Staff member
Admin
Funny how some sections are almost dry.

I'm also always surprised at how vulnerable the fibre backbones are.
 

coolboyslim

Mr Reality Hacker
28DL Full Member
Awesome that m8ty. Bit to much for me yet lol but a few more culvert stuff and some underground stuff and I will make it. Epic stuff
 

pauln

too old to be reckless
28DL Full Member
The photos are excellent and the time you've taken to write the descriptions really helps explain what we're seeing. Superb report.
 

gatopretorockey

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Hi, I'm new to this forum and I wanted to say what a great report and the photos are so cool, I wish I had the guts to do something like this.
 
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