Underground London

John Hollingshead

Read by Peter Yearsley

(4.2 stars; 5 reviews)

From the Preface: "This book contains an account, more or less readable, of most things belonging to "Underground London", particularly of the mechanism of sewers, and of the water and gas supply." Underground London was published in 1862, and refers to early-to-mid Victorian London. The final chapter describes a) the discussion over a central London terminus for the railway, and b) plans for the underground railway (the initial work on the "Metropolitan" line was being carried out as this book was being written). The author has an easy, often humorous, style: "Without any wish to speak disrespectfully of sewage, I have a secret sympathy with old Sir Thomas Browne's feeling, and regard this daily mass of muck as a melancholy adjunct of our fallen state." (that last quote is from Chapter One).

NOTES:
1. The sewer workers often refer to sewers as "shores".
2. "Carburetted hydrogen" is methane; "sulphuretted hydrogen" is hydrogen sulphide; "carbonic acid gas" is carbon dioxide.
3. When the contents of letters (and similar documents) are quoted, the name of the recipient is usually given after that of the signatory.
4. Two of the six appendices are included in this reading: one is a list of gas accidents that have occurred in the sewers, and the other a list of the main sewer routes under London.

TABLES:
The reader may wish to skip past some of the tables of data:
Chapter Four includes some tables of information about the main sewers (names, length etc.). These run from 16 min 28 sec to 22 min 45 sec in the recording.
Chapter Eight includes a table of plant and animal species detected in shafts sunk at Dulwich and Peckham (from 21 min 47 secs to 23 min 05 secs); and descriptions of strata found in three shafts sunk at Dulwich (27 min to 29 min 38 secs).
Chapter Ten includes tables of data from 4 min 19 secs to 44 min 26 secs.
(Summary by Peter Yearsley) (6 hr 48 min)