real time web analytics
Report - - Walham Green Storm Relief Sewer – London – November 2018 | UK Draining Forum | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Walham Green Storm Relief Sewer – London – November 2018

Hide this ad by donating or subscribing !

TheVicar

Loyal to the Drain
Regular User


Constructed by London County Council and explored in the company of Tallginge and Seffy.

The storm relief sewers of London are usually always a pleasure to explore and paying a visit to this relatively short one was another worthwhile trip.

The Storm Relief begins at this reasonably sized CSO chamber on the Low Level Sewer #1 which is situated close to St. John’s Church in Fulham. From here it runs for about a mile in a south easterly direction towards Lots Road Pumping Station.

Here in the CSO chamber the sewer is only a small inverted egg shape measuring a mere 4ft in height by 2ft 8 inches wide.
It was surprising to see water pouring into the storm relief on a crisp sunny November morning but the reason for this was simply a technical issue as there was a gap in one of the dam boards on the overflow weir under which a substantial amount of flow was escaping.

At one end of the chamber the Storm Relief tunnel begins and the lovely red brickwork gives way to a boring concrete. Note the wear to the brickwork on the right hand side by the chafing of the iron chains under the force of overflows over the course of the last hundred years or thereabouts.
The thing that instantly struck me was the ‘tide mark’ which was over three quarters the height of the 6ft 6 inch tunnel. This drain would appear to also act as a storage facility for excess overflows in the event of sustained storm conditions.



a.jpg

b.jpg

c.jpg

d.jpg

e.jpg



After a few minutes walking downstream from here we came to the first junction which ran west in the direction of Parsons Green where there is another small CSO from a local sewer. We didn’t venture up this tunnel due to the small size of it.

f.jpg


A short while later another tunnel to the west joins the Storm Relief. (Photo is taken looking upstream to show both tunnels clearly)
This beautiful red brick pipe leads to another CSO on the Fulham branch of the LLS #1.
What can be seen at this point when looking up at the top of the tunnel in the Storm Relief is that the tunnel has at some point in the past filled completely to the top!


g.jpg



Venturing up the brick pipe leads to a similar but smaller chamber to that at the start of the Storm Relief.

h.jpg

i.jpg

j.jpg

k.jpg



At the top of the weir, the water in the slightly larger (4ft 6ins x 3ft wide) egg shaped sewer flows ferociously fast.
A couple of beached turds rest on the concrete ledge, the most recent evidence of an overflow most likely the previous night as it had rained quite heavily.
Again, a brief inspection of the ceiling of this chamber clearly shows evidence of having been completely full to the brim with water at some point by the tell tale polystyrene balls that are always a good indicator of past storm events.

l.jpg

m.jpg

n.jpg


I took no more photos of the Walham Green Storm Relief on its downstream route from here as there was sadly nothing more of interest to see.
The only thing to mention is that as the tunnel heads closer to its destination, the water level begins to rise higher and higher until it is too deep to progress any further.
From the sound of lapping water ahead, it would suggest that the level reaches the ceiling.
Quite what the setup is at the end of this drain is unclear but without scuba gear there wasn’t any easy way of finding out.




 

tallginge

more tall than ginger tho.....
Regular User
Nice find, dude and a pleasure as always. There's a lot of concrete/ spraycrete in between the nice brick chambers though. Was gutted to only have a completely inappropriate lens for photographing this one and wasn't going to piss myself off, finding out how useless it'd be :( @Seffy - how did your fisheye shots up top turn out? Never heard a vicar have an argument with his echo in a drain before, so that was a new one. :D It was shortly before seffy and i realised our wadorz weren't watertight
 

Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
Some nice snaps @TheVicar and you've made what's essentially a boring overflow relief look quite cool :thumb

I'll be sure to check the bit around Parsons Green at some point not sure I'm looking forward to more stooping though!

I think the Eel Brook connection is also going to be a bit sketch, I'll report back within the next decade :p
 

TheVicar

Loyal to the Drain
Regular User
Nice find, dude and a pleasure as always. There's a lot of concrete/ spraycrete in between the nice brick chambers though. Was gutted to only have a completely inappropriate lens for photographing this one and wasn't going to piss myself off, finding out how useless it'd be :( @Seffy - how did your fisheye shots up top turn out? Never heard a vicar have an argument with his echo in a drain before, so that was a new one. :D It was shortly before seffy and i realised our wadorz weren't watertight

Cheers, it was a shame you didn't have the right lens for the job but at least you got to see the place with your own eyes.
Those echoes were quite something, reminded me of Rubix with the tunnel filling to the ceiling in the same way.
I reckon you need to ask Santa for a new pair of Wadorz this Christmas.

Some nice snaps @TheVicar and you've made what's essentially a boring overflow relief look quite cool :thumb

I'll be sure to check the bit around Parsons Green at some point not sure I'm looking forward to more stooping though!

I think the Eel Brook connection is also going to be a bit sketch, I'll report back within the next decade :p

Thanks, the spraycrete tunnel wasn't very inspiring but the red brick parts made up for that :)
My back can't tolerate stooping for more than a few metres so that Parsons Green bit was out of the question.
 

tallginge

more tall than ginger tho.....
Regular User
Yeah, a very delayed echo, eh. Fuck off...............fuck off...............Yeah seeing that big overflow from the low level for myself more than made up for not capturing it, properly (and I'm not sharing my wanky phone pics here!) I wasn't expecting all that, especially so far west in london
 

tarkovsky

SWC
Regular User
Another great report. The draining forum is looking healthy at the moment! Some of those junctions are really nice, great photos. That high level tide mark tho! Defo one for a dry forecast...
 

Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
^Decent them, I need to start using my fisheye again as the wangle doesn’t often cut it in these places
 

Killa

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Another excellent and detailed report!
Cracking detail and pics.
Question: was “the boring concrete” section very deep underground? Its possible this was tunneled with cast iron segments like a tube railway tunnel and lined afterwards with concrete.
Also where its flooded further down, this must be near Lots Road Pumping Station, when l last researched this site it still had diesel powered pumps, guessing this site is manually controlled?
 

TheVicar

Loyal to the Drain
Regular User
Another excellent and detailed report!
Cracking detail and pics.
Question: was “the boring concrete” section very deep underground? Its possible this was tunneled with cast iron segments like a tube railway tunnel and lined afterwards with concrete.
Also where its flooded further down, this must be near Lots Road Pumping Station, when l last researched this site it still had diesel powered pumps, guessing this site is manually controlled?

Cheers Killa.
It was hard to say how deep underground the main concrete tunnel ran but I'd say that at the upstream end where we entered it was about 30ft below ground level. I got the impression that the tunnel was originally brick but this was more a feeling that anything evidence based.
The flooded section of the drain was close to Lots Road PS. I don't know anything about how the site is controlled but would certainly be interested if anyone knows!
 
Top