Grace's Guide
British Industrial History
Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 148,535 pages of information and 233,960 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.
Metropolitan Commission of Sewers
From Graces Guide
1847 Superseded the Holborn and Finsbury Commissioners of Sewers.
1852 Joseph Bazalgette was appointed chief engineer to the 5th Metropolitan Commission of Sewers
1855 The 6th Commission of Sewers for London was established but still there seemed no end to the dilemma of London's waste
An Act of Parliament was passed which put an end to all Commissions by creating the Metropolitan Board of Works.
1856 Two commissions were appointed:
- One to enquire into the whole subject of the drainage of London; members included Captain Galton, R.E.; Mr. James Simpson, C.E.; and Mr. J. E. Blackwell, C.E.
- The second to consider the abstract question of the possibility of utilising the sewage matter; members included Lord Portman, the chairman, a land-owner in Dorset and experimentalist with chemical manures; Mr. Ker Seymer; Mr. Brunel; Mr. Rawlinson; Professor Way, the agricultural chemist; Mr. T. B. Lawes manufacturer of manure; Dr. Southwood Smith, the sanitary reformer.
1856 Succeeded by the Metropolitan Board of Works