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I am going to start my thread on Edinburgh's sewer history with some topography, as it's very important for the simple reason that the sewage will only run downhill. So here is a topographically coloured map of central Edinburgh
And here is the same map without the modern streets. Sewage from the red areas will flow via orange to yellow to green to light blue to dark blue and will continue to do so until it either collects somewhere on the way, or finds an outlet to the sea
And here is the 1784 town plan (Kincaid, from http://maps.nls.uk ) overlaid on that. The obvious thing here should be that almost nothing is built north of George St., so pretty much everything flows either into the Nor' Loch, the Cowgate, the Meadows or to Holyrood Park.
So the starting point for what happens to Edinburgh's sewage has little-to-nothing to do with the Water of Leith when we think about how the city was back then.
The vast majority of the waste of old Edinburgh, and the southern part of the New Town, ends up draining east (orange) into what is known as the "East Foul Burn". The north part of the New Town (pink) goes to the Water of Leith by one route or another.
Yellow flows into the Boroughloch (now drained as The Meadows), where it slowly winds its way west into the Water of Leith via the Lochrin. But it is caught on its way by "Irrigated Meadows" at Roseburn, where the water stagnates and "night soil" is collected as manure
But yellow and pink are really not that important, up until the mid-late 18th century, it's the orange where most of the waste is going. Notice also that less of it is draining into the Nor' Loch than you might expect
(The Nor Loch is that ancient, man made loch to the north of the castle that was part of the city's defences. It has a reputation as the city's sewer but it should be obvious that the waste from the majority of the Old Town has no route to flow into it)
Anyway, to keep it succinct, up until this point, most of the city's waste flows via open sewers (little more than ditches) towards Holyrood, where the tail of the Royal Mile is, where it collects into the "East Foul Burn" aka Tummel or Tumble Burn aka Clockmill Burn
From there, it winds its way to the sea via a very elaborate set of "irrigated meadows" stretching from Meadowbank and Lochend via Craigentinny to Fillyside. This was a remarkable piece of aquatic engineering to recover the manure and also to grow grass fodder
In a time before artificial fertilisers, human as well as animal manure was vitally important for food production. And the meadows, constantly fertilised could grow multiple crops of fodder each year for the city's horses and dairy cows.
You can read pretty much the extent of my knowledge of the East Foul Burn system here, a single page consolidation of a previous thread on such matters https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1160862501954818048.html?refreshed=yes
Long story short - the sewage system back then was much more complicated and managed than we might give it credit for, but it was nothing to do with public health and everything to do with the practicalities and economics of food production.
There were 3 principal collection routes for this system; the Nor Loch valley via the North Back of Canongate (Calton Road), the Cowgate and South Back of Canongate (Holyrood Road) and into the King's Park from Dumbiedykes/ St. Leonards area. The flow is then east to the sea
This system was progressively sent underground into proper sewers through the 19th century. The irrigated Meadow system persisted right up to the 1920s when it was bypassed by a proper sewer, the land drained and given over to council and bungalow housing estates
Jumping to round about 1850, there is a fairly obvious change to the old system, as a large part of the growing city is no longer in the catchment of the East Foul Burn system (orange) but now the Water of Leith (yellow) and into the WoL it did flow!
The Water of Leith was less than ideal as a sewer, as its flow was far more seasonal than it is now (since compensation reservoirs were built through the 19th century to maintain the water flow for industry), so had periods of little flow, so the sewage would collect
In addition, the slower water in the mill lades meant the sewage would collect and settle and it would collect behind the weirs, "By the middle of the 19th century the condition of this river had seriously deteriorated"
But until then the nuisance was mainly thought to be one of sight and smell, it was not until the 2nd Cholera Epidemic of 1848-1849 that it was finally proved and widely understood that polluted water's role in spreading disease.
Not only do you have the raw sewage of the New Town and the expanding north of Edinburgh carried directly into the Water of Leith, the dense industry along the route is also dumping all its waste and byproducts into it, from where it flows directly to Leith
Three series of "compensation reservoirs" were built in the hills near the source of the Water of Leith in the 19th century to reliably maintain the river levels as the city was abstracting the springs for its drinking water, these kept the river flowing all year
As the 19th century wore on, industry used progressively less water for power, but used it for processes (particularly cooling), and also to carry its waste away. Many of the lades simply silted up with sewage from want of use.
But it was not clear what specifically should be done; industry was fairly happy so long as the river flowed, but reformers and residents desired a change to clean up the river and their environment
There were also interminable jurisdiction conflicts as there was no single authority along the river and rights to the river, lades etc.
The first meaningful effort was made in 1853 by the Edinburgh Police Commission (statutory reminder, the "Police" back then also handled the city lighting, cleansing, sanitation, weights and measures, some taxation etc. and not just law enforcement)
The Police engaged consulting engineers to look at the state of the lower river (north of Roseburn), who surveyed it carefully and came to the logical conclusion that it was full of shit
The engineers' report made 2 simple reconsiderations;
- clear the river bed of as many unnecessary obstructions where sewage accumulated (weirs and lades) as possible
- build an "interceptor sewer" to collect the outflows of all the sewers discharging into the river
- clear the river bed of as many unnecessary obstructions where sewage accumulated (weirs and lades) as possible - build an "interceptor sewer" to collect the outflows of all the sewers discharging into the river
The Police Commissioners accepted the report without hesitation and in 1854 the Edinburgh Police Amendment Act was passed. Part 1 of the scheme was implemented with much struggle with reluctant and recalcitrant mill and land owners, but Part 2 came to nothing
The success of Part 1 helped Edinburgh, as it assisted in the flow of raw sewage down the river, but as the river slowed in the dock basin of Leith, again it started to gather as sediment and by 1855 this was causing the Dock Commissioners a serious problem
They complained that the Water of Leith no "flushed so well that a foot of mud and solid filth had been deposited"... "this created such a noxious and offensive effluvium and stench, as to be exceedingly prejudicial to the
health of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood"
health of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood"
So Leith began to lobby Edinburgh for a joint solution to the problem; namely resurrecting the plan for the unbuilt "interceptor" sewer, and expanding it to catch the outflow of some 180 drains, constituting the whole north and west of Edinburgh and most of Leith
The new scheme was drawn up by the finest consulting engineers the city had to offer; Thomas and David Stevenson (of the lighthouse family).
The city was further assisted by another Stevenson (no relation), a son of Glasgow and analytical chemist called Stevenson Macadam, who undertook the first chemical analysis of the contents of the river. Coincidentally the consultant chemist to the Northern Lighthouse Board.
Macadam's work proved that although there was industrial waste in the river north of Roseburn, there was no "putrefaction" as a result, but north of Roseburn where the "West Foul Burn" and city's sewers began to enter it, "the quality deteriorated drastically".
Macadam didn't mince his words. The river was receiving the raw sewage of "100,000 people and was charged with fecal matter of the most disgusting and abominable character". It collected in "hot-beds of decomposing filth from which abundantty offensive gases were diffused"
It took about 2 years of legal and political wrangling between Edinburgh and Leith to agree who should be liable for what (it turned out that Edinburgh wasn't legally liable for its own shit or the problems it caused once it entered the Water of Leith).
It took the intervention of the Lord Justice-General (a senior Scottish judge) to put the legal liability to one side and he agreed that Edinburgh should be paying for what to do with its own waste, not Leith.
Despite opposition from mill owners and the usual nay sayers of local politics, averse to any change that they didn't think impacted them, the Edinburgh and Leith Sewerage Act for the construction of the interceptor sewer was passed in 1864
OK. I might have to go to bed but don't you go anywhere, sewage class continues again in the morning.
