View source for Joseph Bazalgette

{{Short description|British civil engineer (1819–1891)}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox biography
| honorific_prefix   = Sir
| name               = Joseph Bazalgette
| honorific_suffix   = {{Post-nominals/GBR|CB|size=100%}}
| birth_name         = Joseph William Bazalgette
| image              = Joseph Bazalgette by Lock & Whitfield.jpg
| caption            = Bazalgette, {{circa|1864–1877}}
| birth_date         = {{birth date|df=y|1819|3|28}}
| birth_place        = [[Clay Hill, London|Clay Hill]], [[Middlesex]], England
| death_date         = {{death date and age|df=yes|1891|3|15|1819|3|28}}
| death_place        = [[Wimbledon, London|Wimbledon, Surrey]], England
| occupation         = [[civil engineering|Civil engineer]]
| spouse             = {{Marriage|Maria Kough|1845}}
| children           = 11
| signature          = Joseph Bazalgette signature.svg
}}
'''Sir Joseph William Bazalgette''' {{Post-nominals/GBR|CB}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|æ|z|əl|dʒ|ɛ|t}}; 28 March 1819 – 15 March 1891) was a British [[civil engineering|civil engineer]]. As Chief Engineer of London's [[Metropolitan Board of Works]], his major achievement was the creation of the London Main Drainage, the [[London sewerage system|sewerage system for central London]], in response to the [[Great Stink]] of 1858, which was instrumental in relieving the [[Capital city|city]] of [[cholera]] epidemics, while beginning to clean the [[Thames|River Thames]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis|first=Stephen|last= Halliday|publisher=The History Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0752493787}}</ref> 

According to the [[BBC]], "Bazalgette drove himself to the limits in realising his subterranean dream".<ref name="Seven wonders"/> The first modern [[History of water supply and sanitation#Sewer systems|sewage system]], which began construction in 1859, was described by ''[[The Guardian]]'' as "a wonder of the industrial world".<ref name="Mann"/> With only minor modifications, Bazalgette's engineering achievement remains the basis for sewerage design up into the present day.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0gBwjLTUzEMC|title=100 Greatest Science Inventions of All Time|publisher=Libraries Unlimited|year=2006|pages=148–149|author=Kendall F. Haven|isbn=9781591582649|access-date=9 November 2025|archive-date=19 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160219011558/https://books.google.com/books?id=0gBwjLTUzEMC|url-status=live}}</ref>

Bazalgette was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] by [[Queen Victoria]] in 1875, and he was elected [[President (corporate title)|President]] of the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] in 1883. He later designed the second and current [[Hammersmith Bridge]], which opened in 1887.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hammersmith Bridge |author= |work=London Museum |date= |access-date=24 March 2025 |url= https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/hammersmith-bridge/ |quote=1887 }}</ref> 

==Early life==
Bazalgette was born at Hill Lodge, [[Clay Hill, London|Clay Hill]], [[Enfield, London|Enfield]], the son of Joseph William Bazalgette (1783–1849), a retired [[Captain (Royal Navy)|Royal Navy captain]], and Theresa Philo ''née'' Pilton (1796–1850). His grandfather, Louis Bazalgette, a tailor and financier, was an economic migrant from [[Ispagnac]] in [[Lozère]], France, who became principal tailor to the Prince of Wales, the future [[George IV]], and subsequently became wealthy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bazalgette |first=Charles |title=Prinny's Taylor: The Life and Times of Louis Bazalgette (1750-1830) |date=5 September 2015 |publisher=Tara Books |isbn=9780987969200}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Adonis |first1=Andrew |last2=Parris |first2=Matthew |date=23 September 2014 |title=Joseph Bazalgette |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b04hvy0l |access-date=29 February 2024 |website=BBC Sounds |series=Great Lives |publisher=[[BBC]] |language=en-GB}}</ref>{{Efn|Louis Bazalgette's tailoring account for the Prince Regent (who later became King George IV) was worth over 2 million pounds (adjusted for inflation) and was guaranteed by Parliament.|group=lower-alpha}}

[[File:Blason de la famille Bazalgette (Gévaudan).svg|thumb|right|180px|Bazalgette family arms]]
In 1827, when Joseph was eight years old, the family moved into a newly built house in [[Hamilton Terrace]], [[St John's Wood]], London. He spent his early career articled to the noted engineer [[John Benjamin Macneill|Sir John Macneill]], working on railway projects, and amassed sufficient experience (partly in China and Ireland) in [[land drainage]] and [[Land reclamation|reclamation]] to enable him to set up his own London consulting practice in 1842.

In 1845 the house in Hamilton Terrace was sold and Joseph married Maria Kough, from [[County Kilkenny]] in [[Ireland]]. At the time he was working so hard on expanding the railway network that two years later, in 1847, he suffered a nervous breakdown.

In 1847, while he was recovering, London's [[Metropolitan Commission of Sewers]] ordered that all [[cesspit]]s should be closed and that house drains should connect to sewers and empty into the Thames. A cholera epidemic ensued, killing 14,137 Londoners in 1849.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ackroyd |first1=Peter |author1-link=Peter Ackroyd |title=London the biography |date=2000 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London |isbn=9781856197168 |page=344}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Farr |first1=William |author1-link=William Farr |title=Report on the Cholera Epidemic of 1866 in England |date=1868 |publisher=[[HMSO]] |location=London |page=146}}</ref>

Bazalgette was appointed Assistant Surveyor to the Metropolitan Commission in 1849, taking over as Engineer in 1852 after his predecessor died of "harassing fatigues and anxieties." Soon after, another cholera epidemic struck in 1853, killing 10,738. Medical opinion at the time held that cholera was caused by foul air: a so-called "[[Miasma theory|miasma]]". Physician [[John Snow (physician)|John Snow]] had earlier advanced a different explanation, which is now known to be correct: cholera was spread by contaminated water, but his view was not then generally accepted.<ref name="Mann"/>

Championed by fellow engineer [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]], Bazalgette was promoted Chief Engineer of the Commission's successor, the [[Metropolitan Board of Works]], in 1856 (a post which he retained until the MBW was abolished and replaced by [[London County Council]] in 1889). In 1858, the year of the [[Great Stink]], Parliament passed an [[Enabling Act]], despite the colossal expense of the project, and Bazalgette's proposals to revolutionise London's sewerage system began to be implemented.<ref name="Mann"/> The expectation was that enclosed sewers would eliminate the miasma that was thought to be the cause of cholera and, as a result, eliminate cholera [[epidemic]]s.<ref name="Mann"/>

==Sewer works==
[[File:London Sewage system being built in 1860.jpg|thumb|The [[London sewer system]] being built in 1860 led by Bazalgette (top right)]]
<!-- NOTE: An anecdote that Balzagette doubled the diameter of the sewers (accompanied by a quote about the unforeseen) has been removed as it may be a case of [[WP:CITOGENESIS]]. See talk page. Do not re-add unless you have a pre-2007 source that discusses it.  -->At that time, the River Thames was little more than an open sewer, empty of any fish or other wildlife, and an apparent [[public health]] hazard to Londoners. Bazalgette's solution (similar to a proposal made by painter [[John Martin (painter)|John Martin]] 25 years earlier) was to construct a network of {{convert|82|mi|km}} of enclosed underground brick main sewers to intercept sewage outflows, and {{convert|1100|mi|km}} of street [[sanitary sewer|sewers]], to divert the raw sewage which flowed freely through the streets and thoroughfares of London to the river.<ref name="Seven wonders">{{cite news |title=London Sewers - Seven Wonders |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/england/sevenwonders/london/sewers_mm/index.shtml |access-date=19 April 2025 |publisher=BBC}}</ref> The innovative use of [[Portland cement]] has ensured the tunnels were in good order 150&nbsp;years later.<ref>{{Cite book | title = Seven Wonders of the Industrial World | last = Cadbury | first = Deborah | year = 2003 | publisher = Fourth Estate | location = London and New York | page = 183}}</ref>

[[File:Abbey Mills Pumping Station3.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.9|The old [[Abbey Mills Pumping Station]] in Mill Meads, East London]]
[[File:ICE editathon - One Great George Street - 19 July 2013 61 Bazalgette reports.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|Drainage reports by Bazalgette in the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] [[archives]]]]
The plan included major [[pumping station]]s at [[Deptford pumping station|Deptford]] (1864) and at [[Crossness Pumping Station|Crossness]] (1865) on the [[Erith]] [[marsh]]es, both on the south side of the Thames and at [[Abbey Mills Pumping Station|Abbey Mills]] (in the [[River Lea]] [[valley]], 1868) and on the [[Chelsea Embankment]] (close to [[Grosvenor Bridge]]; 1875), north of the river.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Douet |first=James |title=The Steam Pumping Stations of the London Main Drainage, 1858–75 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/03090728.2021.1973226 |journal=Industrial Archaeology Review |date=2021 |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=135–46 |doi=10.1080/03090728.2021.1973226 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The outflows were diverted downstream, where they were collected in two large sewage outfall systems on the north and south sides of the Thames, called the [[Northern Outfall Sewer|Northern]] and [[Southern Outfall Sewer]]s. The sewage from the Outfall Sewers was originally collected in balancing tanks in [[Beckton]] and [[Crossness]], then dumped, untreated, into the Thames at high tide.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.crossness.org.uk/history/londons-sanitation/how-the-system-worked.html|title=How the system worked|website=Crossness Engines|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002054419/http://www.crossness.org.uk/history/londons-sanitation/how-the-system-worked.html|archive-date=2 October 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> The system was opened by [[Edward VII|Albert Edward, Prince of Wales]] in 1865,<ref>{{Cite web|last=CharlotteDunn|date=30 October 2018|title=The Princess Royal visits the Bazalgette Sewer Network|url=https://www.royal.uk/princess-royal-visits-bazalgette-sewer-network|access-date=24 February 2021|website=The Royal Family|language=en}}</ref> although the whole project was not completed for another ten years.

[[File:Portrait of Sir Joseph William Bazalgette (1819-1891) Wellcome M0016460.jpg|thumb|upright|Bazalgette as the "Sewer Snake", ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'', 1883]]
Partly as a result of the [[SS Princess Alice (1865)|Princess Alice disaster]], extensive [[sewage treatment]] facilities were built to replace the balancing tanks in Beckton and Crossness in 1900. The [[Sewage treatment#History|biological treatment of sewage]] was first undertaken in 1885 by William Dibdin, chief chemist for the [[Metropolitan Board of Works]], based on a proposal by [[Edward Frankland]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hamlin |first1=Christopher |title=William Dibdin and the Idea of Biological Sewage Treatment |journal=Technology and Culture|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |date=1988 |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=189–218 |doi=10.1353/tech.1988.0136 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/889247}}</ref>

The basic premise of this expensive project, that miasma spread cholera infection, was wrong. However, the new sewer system's unintended consequence was removing the [[Vibrio cholerae|causal bacterium]] from the water supply, thereby eliminating cholera in areas served by the sewers.<ref name="Mann">{{Cite web|last=Mann|first=Emily|date=4 April 2016|title=Story of cities #14: London's Great Stink heralds a wonder of the industrial world|url=http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/04/story-cities-14-london-great-stink-river-thames-joseph-bazalgette-sewage-system|access-date=24 February 2021|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> Instead of the incorrect premise causing the project to fail, the new sewers mostly eliminated cholera, and also decreased the incidence of [[typhus]] and [[typhoid]] epidemics.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/03/12/392332431/|title='Dirty Old London': A History of the Victorians' Infamous Filth|date=12 March 2015|work=[[NPR]]|access-date=13 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623171517/http://www.npr.org/2015/03/12/392332431/dirty-old-london-a-history-of-the-victorians-infamous-filth|archive-date=23 June 2017|url-status=live|quote=[the famous great sewer network of the mid-19th century] basically took away the possibility of wholesale cholera epidemics in the city, typhus and typhoid – they all were reduced.}}</ref>

Bazalgette's capacity for hard work was remarkable; every connection to the sewerage system by the various [[Vestry]] [[Council]]s had to be checked, and Bazalgette did this himself, and the records contain thousands of [[Drafting linen|linen plans]] with handwritten comments in Indian ink on them "Approved JWB", "I do not like 6''"'' used here and 9''"'' should be used. JWB", and so on.<ref>{{cite book |last1=David |first1=Blockley |title=Creativity, Problem Solving, and Aesthetics in Engineering: Today's Engineers Turning Dreams Into Reality |date=2020 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |page=170}}</ref>

==Family==
[[File:Bazalgette's Mausoleum, Wimbledon - geograph.org.uk - 2168902.jpg|thumb|180px|[[Bazalgette Mausoleum]], [[St Mary's Church, Wimbledon]]]]
Scion of a [[Huguenots|Huguenot family]], Bazalgette was brought up at 17 Hamilton Terrace, [[St John's Wood]] in [[NW postcode area|North West London]]. In 1845, he moved to [[Morden]], then in 1873 to Arthur Road, [[Wimbledon, London|Wimbledon]], where he died in 1891. He was buried at nearby [[St Mary's Church, Wimbledon|St&nbsp;Mary's Church]], [[London SW18]].

Married in 1845, at [[City of Westminster|Westminster]], to Maria Kough (1819–1902), daughter of Edward Kough, [[Justice of the Peace|JP]] (Ireland),<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Obituary – Lady Bazalgette|date=4 March 1902 |page=8 |issue=36706}}</ref> Sir Joseph and Lady Bazalgette had eleven children including:
#Joseph William, born 20 February 1846
#Charles Norman, born 3 March 1847
#Edward, born 28 June 1848
#Theresa Philo, born 11 August 1850
#Caroline, born 17 July 1852; married George [[Chatterton baronets|Chatterton]]
#Maria, born 1854; married Robert [[William Wickham (civil servant)|Wickham]]
#Henry, born 14 September 1855
#Willoughby, born 18 March 1857
#Maria Louise, born 1859; died unmarried
#Anna Constance, born 3 December 1859, married Major Frederick [[William Blacker|Blacker]]
#Evelyn, born 1 April 1861<ref>[https://www.burkespeerage.com/ www.burkespeerage.com]</ref>

==Awards and memorials==
[[File:JosephBazalgette.jpg|right|thumb|Memorial to Sir Joseph Bazalgette on [[Victoria Embankment]], London WC2]]

[[Knight Bachelor|Knighted]] by [[Queen Victoria]] in 1875, Bazalgette was elected [[President (corporate title)|President]] of the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] in 1883.<ref>{{cite book | last = Watson| first = Garth | title = The Civils| publisher = Thomas Telford  | date = 1988 | page = 251| isbn = 0-7277-0392-7}}</ref>

A [[Greater London Council]] [[blue plaque]] commemorates him at 17 Hamilton Terrace in St John's Wood in North London,<ref name="EngHet">{{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/bazalgette-sir-joseph-william-1819-1891|title=Bazalgette, Sir Joseph William (1819–1891)|publisher=[[English Heritage]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110801195355/http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/bazalgette-sir-joseph-william-1819-1891|archive-date=1 August 2011|url-status=dead|access-date=20 October 2012}}</ref> as well as a [[Bazalgette Memorial|formal monument]] on the Victoria Embankment by the River Thames in central London. In July 2020, the [[City of London Corporation]] announced that a new public space west of [[Blackfriars Bridge]], formed following construction of the [[Thames Tideway Scheme]], would be named the [[Bazalgette Embankment]].<ref name="TCI-28Jul2020">{{cite news |title=Tideway honours Victorian pioneer |url=https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/tideway-honours-victorian-pioneer |access-date=28 July 2020 |work=The Construction Index |date=28 July 2020}}</ref>

[[Dulwich College]] has a scholarship in his name either for [[design]] and [[technology]] or for [[mathematics]] and [[science]].<ref>{{Cite report|url=http://www.dulwich.org.uk/client_files/doc_docs/MastersReport04-05.pdf|title=The Master's Report to the Governors for the School Year 2004–2005|publisher=[[Dulwich College]]|page=7|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217215803/http://www.dulwich.org.uk/client_files/doc_docs/MastersReport04-05.pdf|archive-date=17 December 2007}}</ref>

==Other works==
[[File:Hammersmith Bridge Detail.jpg|right|thumb|Detail of [[Hammersmith Bridge]], designed by Bazalgette]]
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
*[[Albert Embankment]] (1869)
*[[Victoria Embankment]] (1870)
*[[Chelsea Embankment]] (1874)
*[[Maidstone]] [[Bridge]] (1879)
*[[Albert Bridge, London|Albert Bridge]] (1884; modifications)
*[[Putney Bridge]] (1886)
*[[Hammersmith Bridge]] (1887)
*The [[Woolwich Free Ferry]] (1889)
*[[Battersea Bridge]] (1890)
*[[Shaftesbury Avenue]] (1886)
*Early plans for the [[Blackwall Tunnel]] (1897)
*[[Charing Cross Road]]
*[[Street names of Covent Garden|Garrick Street]]
*[[Northumberland Avenue]]
*Proposal for what later became [[Tower Bridge]]
{{div col end}}

==Notable descendants==
*[[Christopher Bazalgette]] (great-grandson), amateur cricketer
*[[Ian Willoughby Bazalgette|Will Bazalgette]] (great-grandson), RAFVR pilot awarded the [[Victoria Cross]]
*[[Edward Bazalgette]] (great-great-grandson), musician and television director
*[[Sir Peter Bazalgette]] (great-great-grandson), television producer

== Note ==
{{Notelist|group=lower-alpha}}

==See also==
* [[History of public health in the United Kingdom]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Cook, G. C. "Construction of London’s Victorian sewers: the vital role of Joseph Bazalgette" ''Postgraduate Medical Journal'' (2001) . 77, 802-804. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1742196/pdf/nihpp-rs4169007v1.pdf online]
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Bazalgette, Sir Joseph William |short=x}}
*''Sir Joseph William Bazalgette (1819–1891): Engineer to the Metropolitan Board of Works'' – D P Smith: Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 1986–87 Vol 58.
*''London in the Nineteenth Century: A Human Awful Wonder of God'' – Jerry White, London: Jonathan Cape 2006.
*''The Big Necessity: Adventures in the world of human waste by Rose George'', Portobello Books, {{ISBN|978-1-84627-069-7}}. [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026802.000 book review] (subscription needed for whole article) in [[New Scientist]]
*{{cite DNBSupp|wstitle=Bazalgette, Joseph William |first=Thomas Hudson|last=Beare}}
*{{cite ODNB|first=Denis|last=Smith|title=Bazalgette, Sir Joseph William (1819–1891)|id=1787}}
{{refend}}
*''Choice or chance? The virtues of London Stock bricks for the construction of the Bazalgette sewer network in London (c.1860-1880)''-I J Smalley, A Assadi Langroudi, G.Lill, British Brick Society Information 148, 10–19. 2021.

==External links==
* [https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/how-bazalgette-built-londons-first-super-sewer  "How Bazalgette built London's first super-sewer," by Alwyn Collinson, 26 March 2019, Museum of London]
* [https://pmj.bmj.com/content/77/914/802 "Construction of London's Victorian sewers: the vital role of Joseph Bazalgette," by G C Cook, The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine] 
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/bazalgette_joseph.shtml BBC biography]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090827023055/http://www.newcomen.com/excerpts/bazalgette.htm Newcomen Society paper] <!--Formerly: http://www.newcomen.com/excerpts/bazalgette.htm-->(from Internet Archive)
* [http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/1859map/battersea_bridge_a.html Battersea Bridge]
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.crossness.org.uk/ Crossness Pumping Station]
* [http://www.bazalgette.com Bazalgette family tree]

 {{s-start}}
 {{s-npo|pro}}
 {{s-bef|before=[[Sir James Brunlees]]}}
 {{s-ttl|title=[[List of Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers|President]] of <br>the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]]
 |years=December 1883{{snd}}December 1884}}
 {{s-aft|after=[[Sir Frederick Bramwell]]}}
 {{s-end}}
{{Metropolitan Board of Works}}
{{Thames Water}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bazalgette, Joseph}}
[[Category:1819 births]]
[[Category:1891 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century English architects]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:English civil engineers]]
[[Category:English people of French descent]]
[[Category:Health in London]]
[[Category:Huguenots]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Metropolitan Board of Works]]
[[Category:People from Enfield, London]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Institution of Civil Engineers]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers]]
[[Category:Thames Water]]
[[Category:Water supply and sanitation in London]]
[[Category:Burials at St Mary's Church, Wimbledon]]