How the Effra drains through East Dulwich and Nunhead on the way to Crossness (Map)

[edhistory]

Map from the Borough of Camberwell Annual Report 1907-1908.

So much for the River Effra outfall at Vauxhall?

Interesting how the Bellenden Road sewer was intercepted and directed east.

John K

[mikeb]

John

Do you have the rest of the map northwards? Would be interesting to compare against the picture of the Earl's Sluice / Neckinger you've been building up.

MikeB

[edhistory]

Mike,

I didn't crop much.

I have a couple of new maps for the Neckinger - maybe at the weekend. Your date seems to have been right within a decade.

John K

[Peckhamrye]

Seeing how the sewer crosses the bottom of Peckham Rye I wonder if that has anything to do with the major works going on there at the moment?

[computedshorty]

I remember the deep sewer being placed under Goodrich Road, Heber Road it passed our school we watched as it turned across Lordship Lane into Townley Road, it must have been at least five foot diameter, and dug fifteen feet under the ground, and we could stand up, as we got into the end in the evening while the night watchman was not looking, we crept back as far as the bend in Crystal Palace Road but would not venture further in the dark, this must have been around 1940/1943.

I dont think it was connected to the 7ft sewer in Townley Road, I have a vague memory of it passing the Dulwich Hospital.

This Ruston Bycrus Drag Shovel type was ured to dig the trench.

[mikeb]

Maybe this is just a quirk of the limited objective of the map but where did the sewer in North Peckham drain into? Just seems to stop ...

[mikeb]

Also, where is the Peck shown on this map?

[mikeb]

More context: London-wide sewer map from 1930.

John - the larger map shows the Effra sewer going both ways, north through Brixton and east through Dulwich. The colour code on the map shows the Effra sewer to "pre-1856" i.e. earlier than the East Dulwich sewer (1859).

Also, the Effra sewer diverges from the course of Effra at Herne Hill e.g. this map of 1864 which shows the a watercourse alongside Croxted Rd and also one south of Half Moon Road which joins back up with Croxted Road.

http://london1864.com/stanford66.htm

http://london1864.com/stanford71.htm

So I don't think you can interpret this as showing the Effra stream itself running through East Dulwich.

Mike

[Alex K]

What an exercise in eyestrain! I'd have no idea whatsoever how to orient myself without the railway lines -- and picking them out is no bowl of cherries.

[Townleygreen]

But John, these are sewers - not rivers - so don't necessarily relate to each other. The main sewage works for South London was/is at Crossness (basically Thamesmead), so I presume the various sewers would need to be directed eastwards to there, hence the Effra sewer doesn't discharge into the Thames at vauxhall, but the river might/does.

Fascinating maps though, thanks for posting!

[KestonKid]

And let's hear it for the Ruston Bycrus Drag Shovel!

[Michael Palaeologus]

Fascinating history, many thanks.

Hornby to a diecast model of the Ruston Bycrus Drag Shovel.

[mikeb]

At the risk of coming across as a sewer nerd (too late?), see attached another map: fewer surface features but the contours are interesting.

[computedshorty]

In the fourties returning to school after the holiday we saw that the pipes were being laid in the road outside Heber Road School, we retraced the roads back to Goodrich Road School that they had dug up as it was resurfaced, we then watched as they continued to Lordship Lane cut under the wide pavement on the corner where the dentist surgery on Lordship Lane was, down to Townley Road, we then lost interest where it went then. I seem to remember the Contractor Jessops.