Metropolitan Board of Works
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The Metropolitan Board of Works was created in 1855 as the upper tier of local government in the area that later became Inner London, taking charge of public works. The metropolis which the board serv
Metropolitan Board of Works in Spring Gardens 1860 ILN
Sir John Thwaites, first chairman of the board, in 1858.
James Macnaghten Hogg in 1887.
Joseph Bazalgette
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Sir Joseph William Bazalgette was a British civil engineer. As Chief Engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works, his major achievement was the creation of the London Main Drainage, the sewerage
Metropolitan Board of Works
…and 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of street sewers, which solved the problem. A large part of the work of the MBW was under the charge of the Chief Engineer, Joseph Bazalgette, previously engineer with the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers. William Dibdin, chief chemist for the MBW, conceived the biological treatment of sewage…
Bazalgette, c. 1864–1877
The London sewer system being built in 1860 led by Bazalgette (top right)
The old Abbey Mills Pumping Station in Mill Meads, East London
Drainage reports by Bazalgette in the Institution of Civil Engineers archives