Tankus Posted July 14, 2009 Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 Went up the Thames today on a boat ...and the sight of something moved me in more ways than one !...took this on the way back from the boats bar ...modular jack up barges taking core samples ........Finally Boris has got his act together and is doing something about London's shame .....You will not find this in the tourist guides, but after a few beers from the boats bar and even more on the way home ....I am the font of all knowledge ......and have added to the very thing that I want to talk about ... a..hem ..Our beloved Victorian sewage system does not separate sweet water (rain run-off ) from sewage ..its used to flush the system ...like a gi normus khazi flushed by gods own hand ( I like that image ..god moves London's turds on his will alone ...plus a bit of gravity ..he he ..!) ... a master-stroke by the genius of Joseph Bazalgette , for 140 years his efforts have kept London smelling sweet...... until this last decade ...Thoughtful that he was ...he had an emergency relief system built into the whole network .... if the pressure got too high west of the city ,(It flows west to east ....Im sure that there may be some social comment on this but I digress)........................... emergency relief sluices would open directly into old father Thames ...... dumping their total untreated contents in colossal volumes ....this would prevent manhole covers being blown into the sky downtown.......... and west London turds being cannoned into the east city buildings under considerable pressure .... cant have that can we ! However Joseph oversized his system with an eye on london's future growth ...... there's a man who really did know his shit ...!.......and did not expect this to happen But what he could not have foreseen was London starting to have a regular monsoon season ..in one recent year 12 million cubic meters have been dumped due to 60 storm sluices opening from very heavy rainfall ...3 million being dumped in 24 hours alone from the remnants of the Gloucester floods a year or two back ..!phewwie !So they are now drilling test bores ...... ready for a tunnel the size and length of the channel tunnel ( 9 metres across) to run under the Thames west to east ..to deal with London's monster jobbies .....So ...... when you come to visit us in London during the Olympics and stay in the east end .......... you will be able to take your dump safe in the knowledge that your toilet wont explode from back pressure when you yank the chain once the paper work is done ......!and for that...... you can thank Boris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankus Posted July 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 sez it all ...really Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gandalph Posted July 14, 2009 Report Share Posted July 14, 2009 Are you sure that tunnel isn't being built so that the mP's can give us more of their crap Tankus. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dencandy Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 Amazing Tankus, but it's not just turds that are the problem. I remember looking down on the Thames from the South Bank in the 1950s aged about 6-7 and asking my father: "What are all those long white things in the water, dad?" "I think they're dead eels," was his diplomatic reply. When I looked at him he was grinning. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 "What are all those long white things in the water, dad?" "We used to call them Thames trout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 "What are all those long white things in the water, dad?" "We used to call them Thames trout.They are very nice grilled. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 From my office window I can see Joseph Bazalgette's country retreat in all of its Victorian over-the-top architecture (his own design). Well, I say I can see it. I used to be able to before the trees took over and hid most of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 ...and as I stare out the window I can see Bazalgette Gardens, named in honour of Ian Willoughby Bazalgette the great-grandson of Sir Joseph.The estate is layout in the shape of an aircraft with a central road and "wings" turning off left and right.Ian Willoughby Bazalgette, VC, DFC And do you know there are very few folk who know how to pronounce Bazalgette. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catgate Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 And do you know there are very few folk who know how to pronounce Bazalgette.Chumly?? ... or Bumly?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanHo Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 What an interesting tale - and told with such decorum and with a sweet turn of phrase....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankus Posted July 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 funny that ....decorum is my middle name ...urphcouple of years ago while admiring the cutty sark in its pre charcoal days..... a strange barge tooted by me , so I snapped it ...at the time I did'nt know what it was ... turns out ...it was the Thames bubbler barge .(there are two of them)..basically a last gasp attempt to improve to oxygen content in the water by fizzing it directly from tanks Fish were being seen gasping for air on the surface , caused by detropification of the water from previous sewage dump's .. it was hoped that this might help to resolve the problem bit embarrasing when the GLA were claiming that the thames was eurolands cleanest industrial river ....like duh ,,,what industry is left futility in motion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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