Sewer Ventilation Column in Wallace Crescent, Carshalton

Summary

A sewage ventilation column erected around 1903 on Wallace Crescent, Carshalton as part of a system designed by Baldwin Latham.

Reasons for Designation

The sewer ventilation column dating from around 1903, located in Wallace Crescent, Carshalton and constructed by W Macfarlane & Co, for a sewerage scheme by Baldwin Latham (1836-1917) and one of around 28 remaining in Carshalton, LB Sutton, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest
* designed by the notable sanitation engineer Baldwin Latham (1836-1917), and constructed by the Glasgow-based foundry, W Macfarlane & Co, it is a tall and impressive structure with good quality cast-iron mouldings and decoration;
* the column survives well, retaining its key functional features;
* although sewer ventilation columns were once a common feature of the street scene, original examples of this scale and quality are increasingly rare.

Historic interest:
* as an example of the work of Baldwin Latham, the Victorian sanitation engineer who by the late C19, had designed the sewerage, irrigation and water works for 15 English towns, including the schemes at Carshalton, Croydon, Birmingham, Harrow and Rugby.

Group value:
* as one of around 28 sewer ventilation columns in Carshalton that collectively, are able to illustrate the scale of the town’s Victorian sewer system.

History

The network of sewage tunnels and vents in Carshalton was built in response to the Public Health Act of 1875. The act aimed to help tackle the sanitation requirements in an era of rapidly expanding population with schemes generally implemented by individual local authorities. The former Carshalton Urban District Council adopted one such plan in 1896, which had been prepared by the engineer Baldwin Latham (1836-1917) of Victoria Street, Westminster. The first phase of the scheme was built between 1896 and 1900, with a southern extension added around 1903 and this ventilation pipe appears to date from this second phase. The sewer columns were constructed by W Macfarlane & Co of the Saracen Foundry, Glasgow. Twenty-eight columns of this type have been identified in the Carshalton area.

Baldwin Latham was a surveyor to the Croydon Board of Health from 1863 to 1870, and was later in private practice as an engineer. By the late C19 he had designed the sewerage, irrigation and water works for 15 English towns, including the schemes at Carshalton, Croydon, Birmingham, Harrow and Rugby. He is also cited as the engineer for the sewerage system in Bideford, Devon which included sewer ventilation columns, three of which are listed at Grade II. Latham was also the author of the publication ‘Sanitary engineering: a guide to the construction of works of sewerage and house drainage’ (1873).

Details

A sewage ventilation column erected around 1903 on Wallace Crescent, Carshalton as part of a system designed by Baldwin Latham.

MATERIAL & PLAN: of cast iron and circular on plan, approximately 9m high.

The column consists of two pipes joined by a prominent flanged joint at the mid-point. The plinth base has a moulded top and includes a maker's mark cast in relief that reads ‘W MACFARLANE & CO / GLASGOW’ and another which reads 'GLASGOW / SARACEN FOUNDRY'. To the top of the column is an astylar capital and above this a globe with four flared vents. A richly detailed finial includes a weather vane in the form of an arrow and a filigree crown with a spear to the top.

Sources

Other
Insley, J, ‘Latham, Baldwin (1836-1917)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), (Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/52328)

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