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Report - - Northern High Level Sewer - London 2014. | UK Draining Forum | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Northern High Level Sewer - London 2014.

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Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
Northern High Level Sewer, London 2014.

We dropped into what we believed was the High Level Storm Relief up near Holloway, the word on the street was it's a 5ft stoopy RCP and not really worth bothering with

1.jpg


Now then.. 5ft, RCP, not worth bothering with ?

..And whats that drop shaft on the left ?

It was only after we'd finsished this lot that it was apparent we'd actually been walking up/down the Northern High Level Sewer!!

We did manage a glimpse of the 'High Level Storm Relief' - See a bit further below, and it was more a 4ft RBP

Crack on...


As you can see from the pic above and the one below, we dropped into a medium sized overflow as far as London standards go

The Northern High Level passes by on the R.H.S, facilitating spill flows to gravite beyond the single sided weir via the brick drop shaft down into the Holloway Storm Relief a good 10-15m below


Not the best of pics looking downstream

I broke the f0sheye previously finishing off the Westie and it wouldn't focus for toffee after that!

2.jpg



I was keen to have a look down into the Holloway Storm Relief from the chamber, it's not often these things are laddered

As I shone my torch below, the ladder looked impossible to climb down as it was caked in fat and pebble dashed with stale turds and draped in all manner of rags

I decided to roll my sleeves up and with no gloves to hand I made my descent

Determined to make it to the bottom, although it proved impossible mainly due to the fatty deposits and sheer amount of wipes and rags clogging up the rungs

However, as I neared the bottom it was evidently a no go due to what appeared to be a deep pit of fetid wastewater ahead of the opening to the Holloway Storm Relief, no way anybody was tackling that!

Somehow I gashed my arm on the way down and was gushing with blood, to quote GE
On returning to the top, it was clear he was going to make a great couch guest.
His clothes peppered with splatters of poop and fat, his arm cut exposing blood trickling into the fat. I think I would have left at that point, but he bravely/foolishly soldiered on.


Like a pro I carried on despite the mysterious injury, I think the p00p and fatty crud managed to help seal the wound ;)

Now with hindsight I wouldn't normally volunteer to stand in an interceptor for more than a split second, let alone walk in one

The last time I tried being a smart arse, it very nearly ended in tears


It was now quite late and the flow didn't seem too bad, we opted to head upstream to work out what was going on..

3.jpg



Beyond the weir from ^(pic no.2) the interceptor curves it's way upstream via a sizeable RBP

4.jpg



Just around the bend resides a smaller overflow chamber with a single sided weir similar to the one we entered into, with a deep pool of s00p below and an incoming/outgoing 4ft RBP

5.jpg



It serves a dual purpose:

a.) It marks the end point of the High Level Storm relief (Camden Road Branch), which we oringinally set out to look at and is essentialy an overflow which serves the upstream stretch of the Fleet

Here is a pic I took from the Fleet much earlier of the connecting overflow with the High Level Storm relief which eventually terminates here

6.jpg



b.) The outgoing 4ft RBP allows the interceptor whilst at capacity to gravitate spill flows into the upstream stretch of the Holloway Storm Relief

Sadly I appear to have lost my pics looking down into the chamber

I did climb down, but it appeared to be rather deep, that and the fact the pipe diameter at this point was little over 4ft we opted to continue upstream

7.jpg


As you can see just beyond the overflow another sewer drops in making it difficult under foot at this point


Continuing upstream, the flow wasn't too bad, a tad slippery and especially where the odd side pipe joined along the line

8.jpg



Eventually a side exit, we'd walked a fair distance upto this point, I guess one of the calculated risks associated with sewers that often there is no way out for ages

9.jpg


The only noteable features here were a flow hawk draped into the line just out of shot and 2 cast iron pipes running above, probably gas or water mains


Continuing upstream a considerable distance it was a good while before anything interesting presented itself

Here 2 local sewers enter on opposite sides via 'brick egg' inverts

A ladder can be seen just beyond which leads to a split lid in the middle of a busy road with a curious RCP emerging on the opposing wall

10.jpg



Our attention now diverted to said RCP, which appeared to be an older brick sewer which had since been lined with concrete in recent years

11.jpg



Like everything upstream (North) it was a st00py affair, luckily it didn't last too long as it curved around and came to an abrupt end

Looking at the main drainage map it would appear this is another branch of the Fleet sewer that runs from Hampstead and the start of the interceptor

Note the penstock behind

12.jpg



Tired and getting late we decided to trek back to where we started, we had at least 2 safe exits now, problem is they were a fair old distance apart

As we reached the chamber we started at hours ago, the sensible thing would have been to GTFO and get some sleep

Somehow we convinced ourselves it was a good idea to head downstream and see what else was on offer

As we continued, the flow picked up and was a fair bit deeper the impressive RBP must have been at least +10ft at this point and getting bigger

Unbeknown to us were now walking down the Northern High Level, as far as ridiculous goes this is it!

Worse still there was no exit for a good distance, just one long slippery fast flowing shit pipe

The only usable pic I managed to grab was where it curved ahead of nice S bend, which I failed to capture

It wasn't the easiest of locations to place a tripod and grab a long exposure for obvious reasons

13.jpg



After what seemed like ages, a shape change

The next stretch has a re-inforced flat roof as it passes under the East Coast Mainline and LU tracks near to the Emirates Stadium & Drayton Park

14.jpg



We were about to call it a day (night) when we got a glimpse of something..

I honestly thought we were tripping balls as I'd been on it all week with very little sleep by this point

15.jpg



What we have here is an sizeable overflow that looks like late 90's/2000 era ?

The interceptor passes calmly beyond the single sided weir boards

16.jpg



A large overflow can be seen, the catch rail draped with all manner of sewerfresh

17.jpg



Beyond which a hooj drop shaft allowing spill flows to be discharged into the nearby Holloway Storm Relief

18.jpg



There was no way out here, 2 split lids in the road above compressed by heavy traffic. One of them drops into this strange looking 'inspection cubicle'

I've never seen anything like this before, suppose it would be good to stand here and watch it overflow when it rains

19.jpg



There was no way we were going any further downstream as I think the penny had finally dropped

Rubber dinghy rapids down to Abbey Mills pumping station and dropping into the Northern Outfall Sewer and being scraped out at Beckton without a dinghy was never going to end well :rolleyes:

We knew it was daylight outside by now, the only useable way out was a hell of a walk back upstream, the flow made it hard work

Realistically we had an hour or so before rise & shine, when baths, showers and washing machines would start belching out around the City

By the time we reached the manhole, my quads were burning hard and I was sweating like a pig, I climbed out with my newly acquired bambi legs and collapsed onto the pavement

Not only would I never go back here, I wouldn't recommend walking down a main interceptor and certainly never attempt anything like this in the daytime!

Remember safety is paramount :brew
 

TheVicar

Loyal to the Drain
Regular User
That made for a good read Ojay.
I've ended up learning to treat the 'word on the street' with a pinch of salt after similar surprises. :D

A few months back tallginge and I were exploring the Holloway Storm Relief west from the Orly junction. It was a bit of a disappointing trip to be honest as we were hoping to be able to access the HLS from the Holloway SR (and exit to street level) but this was not possible as the sewer was continually overflowing down a drop shaft that had a good ladder in it.
I'm sure it shouldn't be happening permanently, but it is this continuous overflow that makes Deep Ochre so foul and fetid.
While close to being below the Emirates Stadium we came across this large modern side chamber which I'm thinking might have been the bottom of the dropshaft that you show in your penultimate photo.

A.JPG
B.JPG
 

Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
@TheVicar Yup, that’ll be the bottom, although it’s nearer Gillespie Park than the Emirates. Could you recall the length of the connecting pipe and how far you walked please from the Holloway SR? So I can confirm if my line is/isn’t out :thumb
 

Seffy

SWC
Staff member
Moderator
Comprehensive report of pooptastic infrastructure as always Ojons. Nice :thumb
 

TheVicar

Loyal to the Drain
Regular User
@Ojay The length of connecting pipe from the Holloway SR to the flap in my first pic was about 25m or thereabouts, but the pipe runs almost parallel to the SR before taking a 90 degree turn and joining it .

I'm now thinking that the furthest we progressed west along the Holloway SR was to the point directly below the drop shaft in your first pic if it is where I think it is!
 

tallginge

more tall than ginger tho.....
Regular User
Haha in ur interceptorz! Great report mate, enjoyed that. I can comfirm what the vicar said, bout 25m long running parallel. Yeah think we got as far as the shaft in the first pic. No way were we climbin them ladders! Presumably the holloway s.r ends at the bottom of that shaft and the high level s.r and its thick sludge continues away downhill?
 

Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
Haha in ur interceptorz! Great report mate, enjoyed that. I can comfirm what the vicar said, bout 25m long running parallel. Yeah think we got as far as the shaft in the first pic. No way were we climbin them ladders! Presumably the holloway s.r ends at the bottom of that shaft and the high level s.r and its thick sludge continues away downhill?

Correct on the last bit and pretty sure most likely the same place with the first point. I think my line might be slightly out on the last upstream bit but only slightly considering where the first overflow is.. The concrete overflow though is more than 25m away from the Holloway as I have it plotted. Regards the sewer, no way you can safely go much further down anyway without being sucked off by interceptor as it picks up pace etc
 

Adders

living in a cold world
Regular User
That walk back to the lid was beyond brutal, definitely earned those 6am Kronies.

I walk past the lids we used on the regular still, but fuck a revisit.
 

Lord Oort

Fear is the little death
Regular User
Awesome wrk mate! Sewers really dont appeal to me at all unless Im reading one of your reports and then I wanna go exploring.
 

GG

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Great report and pictures. Thanks for doing it so that we don't have to.
 
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