Latest news with #Bazalgette
Time Out
a day ago
- General
- Time Out
The River Thames is getting a brand-new embankment in central London
The 1.5 acre Bazalgette Embankment has been made possible by London's new 'super-sewer' and will open to the public next month London owes a tonne to Sir Joseph Bazalgette. In the 19th century, when the capital was suffering through the 'Great Stink', Bazalgette came up with a revolutionary sewage system – one that would stop raw waste overflowing into the streets, help prevent deadly cholera outbreaks, and continue to keep the city clean and smelling fresh for the next 150 years. Sir Joseph paved the way for London's new 'super sewer' and now, there's a new Thames embankment being named in his honour. After first being announced in 2020, Bazalgette Embankment has been on the cards for several years now. It's the largest of seven new public embankments (or 'mini-parks') across London that have been made possible by Thames Tideway Tunnel, a 25km long sewer that reached completion last year and became fully connected in February. It'll be on the Blackfriars Bridge foreshore, spanning 1.5 acres with a new walkway and an open space for recreation and leisure activities. Seventy one trees and 3,000 plants were planted to bring it to life. Sir Peter Bazalgette, the engineer's great-great-grandson, said: 'There's a special magic about canals and rivers. People love being beside water, and they appreciate having the room to enjoy waterside recreation, so to have seven new areas beside the Thames that can be enjoyed and explored while walking is going to be a marvellous thing. 'Specifically, the one next to Blackfriars Bridge, which will be named after good old Sir Joe, makes my heart beat proud.' Other new embankments have opened in Putney, Chelsea and Albert Embankment, with others set for Heathwall Pumping Station at Nine Elms and Victoria Embankment. You can expect Bazalgette Embankment to open to the public this autumn. Riverside rest and relaxation There's nothing like a stroll along the Thames to replenish your batteries. Once you've soaked in the luscious new green spaces, head to one of Time Out's favourite waterside pubs or restaurants. To explore more urban nature, check out some of the prettiest walks London has to offer. South London could be getting a brand-new music venue in old railway arches. The wild, magical forest that is one of the best day trips from London. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel. Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.
Bangkok Post
22-07-2025
- Business
- Bangkok Post
Building infrastructure for the AI age
The London Underground, the world's oldest subway system, opened in 1863. Around the same time, London's modern sewage system was designed by civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette in response to the Great Stink of 1858, which brought parliament to a standstill. Planning far ahead, Bazalgette built the system to last 150 years. Only now, with the Thames Tideway project, is it being significantly expanded. Walk through any major city in the UK -- from London to Glasgow, Belfast to Bristol -- and you will find that much of the infrastructure from the late Victorian era is still in use. That is partly because the Victorians built early and planned decades ahead. Like in many other countries, the UK's infrastructure is akin to a palimpsest, with new layers constructed over the old. A similar dynamic is playing out today, as new technologies become integral to daily life and economic growth. Broadband, mobile networks, and data centres, which are now as vital as roads and power grids, are prime examples. At the same time, the concept of social infrastructure is gaining traction among policymakers around the world. The UK's new ten-year infrastructure strategy, for example, focuses on "opportunities for collaboration, productivity and efficiency gains, and the wider benefits of strategic and spatial planning" across the health, education, and justice systems. As the plan notes, this is the first time the British government has included social infrastructure in its national strategy. But even that view is too narrow. Consider the characteristics of the systems that keep our economies running: long lifespans, high fixed costs, low marginal costs, and broad accessibility. Importantly, their value is derived not from the physical assets themselves, but from the economic activities they enable. Our definition of infrastructure should be expanded to reflect the demands of the digital age. While governments often view AI infrastructure in terms of data centres and the energy and water they consume, a truly comprehensive view must also include intangible assets such as software and data. To be sure, this might seem like a conceptual leap. But the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020-21 revealed just how essential digital platforms have become. Videoconferencing tools like Zoom, for example, are so critical to work, education, and public services that it is difficult to imagine life without them. As a result, a growing number of countries are developing what is often called digital public infrastructure, though in practice it typically involves a mix of public and private services. In 2020, Brazil's central bank launched the Pix real-time payment system, which has largely replaced cash transactions. Similarly, India's Aadhaar biometric identification system now serves as a platform for both public services and digital payments. Such digital systems have been adopted more quickly in countries with fewer entrenched legacy services. By contrast, countries like the US and the UK have long-established payment systems dominated by private providers, such as credit card companies, which can impede the adoption of public alternatives. Given their growing economic importance, governments must start thinking strategically about software and data -- the digital equivalents of roads and power grids. This is especially true of intangible assets. Cash-strapped governments tend to underinvest in resources like data and software, while private investors often view them as too risky. But the lack of a robust and well-maintained digital foundation can hinder economic growth. A second reason to invest in digital infrastructure is national sovereignty. Over the past few years, policymakers around the world have become increasingly concerned about the national security risks posed by US firms' dominance in cloud computing. The lesson for governments is that they must step back from immediate flashpoints and take a longer view. Infrastructure provides a useful lens for thinking strategically about what investments are needed, who should make them, and how they should be governed to sustain economic growth. Equally important is a foundation of high-quality data and interoperable software that facilitates user authentication, improves access to cloud services, and fuels the creation of new digital businesses. Victorian planners' foresight continues to benefit us more than a century later. We should approach today's infrastructure challenges with the same mindset. ©2025 Project Syndicate Diane Coyle, Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, is the author of 'Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be' (Princeton University Press, 2021) and 'The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters' (Princeton University Press, 2025).
New European
05-02-2025
- General
- New European
Down in the dumps: Inside London's sewers
Below a manhole cover in east London, I stepped off the bottom rung of a ladder and the waters of a sewer splashed over my thighs. I was almost caught out by the undertow and upended in the far-from-appetising drink. I was one of a group of Thames Water customers who had come to the company's outpost at Wick Lane to see where our money went: our money, and more besides. This subterranean excursion was part of Sewer Week, an event put on by the firm. Down in the wet and noisome gloom, I followed my fellow visitors in single file. We were squelching through a barrel of the northern outfall sewer, built to carry rain and foul water from east London downriver to a place called Crossness, well away from the centre of the city. Our guides were Thames Water staff known as 'flushers' – men and women who, as their title suggests, keep everything moving in the watery underworld. For a time, all you could hear was the sloshing of waders and the muffled roar of the far Niagaras of the sewer delta, and the faint sonar ping of a gas-monitoring device carried by one of the flushers. Through history, chancers and charlatans fell over themselves to meet the water needs of the growing metropolis. In the 16th century, a German engineer persuaded the mayor to let him install a rotating water pump on London bridge: this spluttering Catherine Wheel fed gurgling wooden pipes that dribbled water into the city. In the 1800s, water companies retained scientists and other salaried apologists to praise the river water for its 'liveliness'. So much for the water coming into our homes. As for the foul stuff travelling in the opposite direction, there is a long tradition of men known as 'gong-fermors' and rakers, who were making brass out of muck as early as the Middle Ages. There were occupational hazards. Richard the Raker fell into a cesspit in 1326 and, according to one account, 'drowned monstrously in his own excrement'. Henry III was the first ruler since the Romans to commission public conveniences, but only people of means could afford to take their ease at one of these early privies. The common or garden citizen had to make do with the common or garden. A Victorian cartoon entitled 'Monster Soup' showed a horrified woman looking through a microscope at a slide of tentacled nasties. Water quality had been a scandal for years, but nothing was done until 1858. In that long, hot summer, the Thames blew the Houses of Parliament a ripe and lingering kiss. The river had become stagnant. The Great Stink of London led to the commissioning of the sewers under the direction of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, one of London's least recognised city fathers. He built or revamped an underground city comprising 1,300 miles of tunnels. The tunnel I was sloshing through was a Bazalgette creation. After 150 years of service, Bazalgette's sewers are at last being upgraded: the Thames Tideway Tunnel, a 'super sewer' running for 15 miles east to west under the river, came online last autumn. In one 24-hour spell alone, the tunnel can remove 850,000 tonnes of sewage. But while the engineers of Thames Water command admiration, the company's knotty financial arrangements are less impressive. Thames Water was debt-free when it was privatised by Margaret Thatcher in 1989, but perhaps that's because we, the taxpayers, had been shouldering its outgoings. As a private company, it has borrowed heavily. A large chunk of debt was added after it was bought by an Australian bank called Macquarie. By the time they sold it again in 2017, the liability was more than £10bn. Where has all the money gone? It certainly hasn't been used to fix the infrastructure problems. It would take more than a water diviner and his trembling hazel twig to trace Thames Water's financial problems all the way back to their source. Stephen Smith is a journalist and broadcaster
