London’s Sewers

Named by The Guardian as One of the Top 10 Science and Technology Books for June 2014

Victorian London was filthy. The city was growing at an exponential rate, and the existing systems of waste disposal could not cope, resulting in a sanitary crisis. The solution was a new drainage system for the entire city, which was constructed mainly in the 1860s. Paul Dobraszczyk charts the development and construction of this immense project, using both contemporary and modern imagery to illustrate the complex engineering and magnificent architecture built deep underground to service the modern city of London.