Bazalgette's Offices!

Maybe not so interesting for 'normal' folk but this engineer enjoyed seeing the offices of the Metropolitan Board of Works on the corner of Greek Street, from where the 1855-1875 (approx) main drainage for London was organised.

I was able to see it during an 'Open House' 'Public Health Architecture Tour' ... though the guide didn't actually mention this building, perhaps understandably being more focused on the Mary Seacole's one-time home in Soho Square (she had funded her own trip to the Crimea to establish a hotel as a place of respite for sick & recovering soldiers www.maryseacoletrust.org.uk), just across from Bazalgette's Offices.

And the bust of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, still to be seen built into a wall above the Embankment. But looking north, so unable to see the massive Thames Tideway works taking place behind and beneath him - works which, in effect, update his collector sewers with a 55m deep, 7m diameter tunnel to serve the massively enhanced population of London.

I asked one of the lead design and feasibility engineers of Thames Water for Tideway a couple of years back whether he would also get a bust - he didn't think so!