engineering

Northern Outfall Sewer

Northern Outfall Sewer is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Northern Outfall Sewer rather than just read about it. In short: The Northern Outfall Sewer (NOS) is a major gravity sewer which runs from Wick Lane in Hackney to the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works in east London. Most of it was designed by Joseph Bazalgette, as a result of an outbreak of cholera in 1853 and the "Great Stink" of 1858.

Key takeaways

Northern Outfall Sewer belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Northern Outfall Sewer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Northern Outfall Sewer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Northern Outfall Sewer (NOS) is a major gravity sewer which runs from Wick Lane in Hackney to the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works in east London. Most of it was designed by Joseph Bazalgette, as a result of an outbreak of cholera in 1853 and the "Great Stink" of 1858. Prior to the work, drains in central London were built primarily to cope with rain water, but the growing use of flush toilets frequently meant that they became overloaded, causing sewage and industrial effluent to flow into the River Thames. Bazalgette's London sewerage system project included the construction of intercepting sewers north and south of the Thames. The Southern Outfall Sewer network diverts flows away from the Thames south of the river. In total, five interceptor sewers were constructed north of the Thames. Three were built by Bazalgette, and two were added 30 years later:

The northernmost (Northern High Level Sewer) begins on Hampstead Hill and is routed past Kentish Town and Stoke Newington and under Victoria Park to the start of the Northern Outfall Sewer at Wick Lane. Two middle level sewers serve parts of central London and also join the Northern Outfall Sewer at Wick Lane: One begins close to Kilburn and runs along Edgware Road, Euston Road and past King's Cross, through Islington to Wick Lane. The other runs from Kensal Green, under Bayswater and along Oxford Street, then via Clerkenwell and Bethnal Green to Wick Lane. Two low-level sewers stretch from west London: One starts from near Ravenscourt Park, passes under Hammersmith and Kensington, Piccadilly, the Strand, Aldwych, the City and Aldgate to Abbey Mills Sewage Pumping Station. The second begins in Hammersmith, crosses under Fulham and then runs along the King's Road and Cheyne Walk from where it becomes an integral part of the Thames Embankment. Western Sewage Pumping Station near Chelsea Bridge helps maintain the necessary gravity flow, taking sewage on along Millbank, the Victoria Embankment and Tower Hill, then north-east under Whitechapel, Stepney and Bow to Abbey Mills. The flows from the two low-level sewers are raised by some 40 feet (12 m) into the Northern Outfall Sewer at Abbey Mills Pumping Station, to join the flows from the High and Middle Level sewers. The remaining sections of the NOS carry the sewage from Abbey Mills to the treatment plant at Beckton. The creation of the NOS was a massive undertaking, and involved the construction of huge embankments and several bridges. Today, the eastern end of the Northern Outfall Sewer, running some 4+1⁄2 miles (7 km) from Wick Lane to Beckton, has been landscaped to form a public footpath/cycleway called The Greenway, with access points along its length.

See also Crossness Pumping Station Southern Outfall Sewer

References

External links A website showing some of the pipework

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Northern Outfall Sewer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Northern Outfall Sewer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Northern Outfall Sewer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Northern Outfall Sewer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Northern Outfall Sewer

In research: Northern Outfall Sewer appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Northern Outfall Sewer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Northern Outfall Sewer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Newham, London water infrastructure, Subterranean London, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Northern Outfall Sewer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Northern Outfall Sewer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Northern Outfall Sewer means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Northern Outfall Sewer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Northern Outfall Sewer in simple terms?

Why does Northern Outfall Sewer matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Northern Outfall Sewer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Northern Outfall Sewer.