Much is made of Bazelgette's embankments, which narrowed the Thames and took sewage away from the city, ending the Great Stink.
This great feat of Victorian engineering ended downriver in pumping stations like the one at Crosssness, whose purpose was to raise the sewage to the level of the river, and then evacuate it once more into the Thames. So the problem didn't actually go away, it was just shifted down river.
Crossness, in Abbey Wood, southeast London, was a cathedral to the age of steam, its four giant James Watt beam engines a glory to behold. It closed in 1957 and was partially filled in. But recent restoration has brought it back to life and yesterday, as part of London's Open House weekend, around 1,000 people braved disgusting weather to visit the building where one of the engines was fully operating. The fancy painted ironwork was designed by the Metropolitan Board of Works so that visiting dignataries could admire the industrial leviathans without being reminded of their basic functional nature.
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