London Centric shows you the apartment blocks sending untreated human waste into the capital's waterways, causing "a quiet, steady, background poisoning".
Pleasure - so needed. I am just finishing a major primary history of the tube 1891-2050 so got to interview Ken, Heseltine, Byford and Tunnickiffe- so know TfL and it’s predecessors v well. Crowded City pt1 is due 31 July.
You were bang on re the hack- totally vulnerable- LT Museum it was a joke. Easy access- worse than a local library. Still in denial GLA-internet was banned in TfL offices due to breach- staff having to use own mob phones for access.
Sent to as many people as possible as your so needed since the demise of proper scrutiny. Like it or loathe it, the once mighty E News and E Standard served a Democratic purpose. That’s missing!!!
This isn’t just neglect. It’s ecological vandalism — hidden in plain sight.
When raw sewage is pumped into the Thames from million-pound flats owned through offshore trusts, we’re not just looking at plumbing errors. We’re looking at a failure of accountability — from developers, councils, and absentee landlords who treat London like a slot machine.
This story should be front-page news. Because if we can’t even protect our rivers from human waste, what can we protect?
Bravo, Jim and Rachel. This is what journalism should be.
Completely off topic but everytime I see it, I have to mention it.
When using this kind of wading pants, you should wear some sort of floatation device or at least have a safety rope ready. If you get into the water too deep because you missed a hole in the ground or whatever, they will fill up. If you fall, same thing. They will make you drown, even in rather shallow water. Might look ridiculous, but it will save your life eventually.
Brilliant journalism of the sort our national and local newspapers (RIP) should cover. Yet another story about how "businesses" are screwing the country; the two biggest problems we have are a failure to accept responsibility and individual and corporate greed. And with the dumbing down of national and local media there are few outlets truly willing to scrutinise those failings, to shine a light on those misdeeds and get out there and get their hands dirty. I'm fairly crap at technology but will try to work out ways to share as widely as possible.
A substack about soil stacks, fitting. I wasn't at all surprised to see Long Harbour and HomeGround mentioned, as both are involved in huge numbers of blocks and in my experience are only interested in collecting their ground rent and commissions on insurance, not dealing with the seemingly grubby business of actually caring about the building and managing it for residents. Where there's an RMC or RTM (i.e. flat leaseholders have management control of the building and budget) it is probably their responsibility (leaseholders pay for it) to fix misconnections and any managing agent will just be follows their instructions. A major problem is that with newer buildings they usually come with a two year developer warranty followed by an 8 year warranty from the likes of NHBC which covers structural issues and might cover a misconnection. So when Thames Water and the local authority take their sweet time finding issues and taking enforcement action, they are allowing the clock to tick and making it more likely the innocent flat owners will get hit with the bill and making it harder to fix the problem. Great reporting and a fascinating read.
Not exactly an ‘enjoyable’ read, but a really important well researched article, very uncomfortable and utterly disgusting. Quite third world and emblematic of the fundamental issues of our society – sweep them under the carpet, or down the loo.
I'm from Harrow and when I was at primary school we had a trip to the sewage works. It had a lasting impact. Maybe if more people actually saw how waste is processed and cleaned they'd be more concerned about the process. This is genuinely shocking and horrible.
I think BBC not what is was? Why this journalism so imp-others literally repeating word for word GLA spin. You do not have to be Susan Hall or worse (is that possible?), to know not everything is going well. Housing target? GLA was a classic N Labour project understandably designed to prevent a new GLC emerging. Problem is, assembly is really only for show and Mayors, good, bad and indifferent are barely touched by it. No effective revising powers means awful Mayoral schemes like Boris Bus which normally anybody with half a brain would question, are not being filtered out. London is now subject to the whims. fads and prejudices of one man-notice its always a man so far. Makes Sir Horace renaming the Fleet to Jubilee look fine!
This is a superb sub stack-passing on to others....some real journalism on London governance etc at last and not nuts or nasty.
Thank you!
Pleasure - so needed. I am just finishing a major primary history of the tube 1891-2050 so got to interview Ken, Heseltine, Byford and Tunnickiffe- so know TfL and it’s predecessors v well. Crowded City pt1 is due 31 July.
You were bang on re the hack- totally vulnerable- LT Museum it was a joke. Easy access- worse than a local library. Still in denial GLA-internet was banned in TfL offices due to breach- staff having to use own mob phones for access.
1801!
Horrifying!! Great work. I have passed it on.
Thank you- I rely on word of mouth to grow so every WhatsApp group and Reddit post makes a massive difference.
Sent to as many people as possible as your so needed since the demise of proper scrutiny. Like it or loathe it, the once mighty E News and E Standard served a Democratic purpose. That’s missing!!!
Passed it onto a friend engaged in work on the river Cam
This isn’t just neglect. It’s ecological vandalism — hidden in plain sight.
When raw sewage is pumped into the Thames from million-pound flats owned through offshore trusts, we’re not just looking at plumbing errors. We’re looking at a failure of accountability — from developers, councils, and absentee landlords who treat London like a slot machine.
This story should be front-page news. Because if we can’t even protect our rivers from human waste, what can we protect?
Bravo, Jim and Rachel. This is what journalism should be.
Presumably these are the 7 properties the Environment Agency issued fines to back in February?
Completely off topic but everytime I see it, I have to mention it.
When using this kind of wading pants, you should wear some sort of floatation device or at least have a safety rope ready. If you get into the water too deep because you missed a hole in the ground or whatever, they will fill up. If you fall, same thing. They will make you drown, even in rather shallow water. Might look ridiculous, but it will save your life eventually.
Brilliant article. Shocking, but important to know. Thanks for diving in and getting your waders dirty to bring us the story.
Brilliant journalism of the sort our national and local newspapers (RIP) should cover. Yet another story about how "businesses" are screwing the country; the two biggest problems we have are a failure to accept responsibility and individual and corporate greed. And with the dumbing down of national and local media there are few outlets truly willing to scrutinise those failings, to shine a light on those misdeeds and get out there and get their hands dirty. I'm fairly crap at technology but will try to work out ways to share as widely as possible.
A substack about soil stacks, fitting. I wasn't at all surprised to see Long Harbour and HomeGround mentioned, as both are involved in huge numbers of blocks and in my experience are only interested in collecting their ground rent and commissions on insurance, not dealing with the seemingly grubby business of actually caring about the building and managing it for residents. Where there's an RMC or RTM (i.e. flat leaseholders have management control of the building and budget) it is probably their responsibility (leaseholders pay for it) to fix misconnections and any managing agent will just be follows their instructions. A major problem is that with newer buildings they usually come with a two year developer warranty followed by an 8 year warranty from the likes of NHBC which covers structural issues and might cover a misconnection. So when Thames Water and the local authority take their sweet time finding issues and taking enforcement action, they are allowing the clock to tick and making it more likely the innocent flat owners will get hit with the bill and making it harder to fix the problem. Great reporting and a fascinating read.
Hello Jim
Not exactly an ‘enjoyable’ read, but a really important well researched article, very uncomfortable and utterly disgusting. Quite third world and emblematic of the fundamental issues of our society – sweep them under the carpet, or down the loo.
I'm from Harrow and when I was at primary school we had a trip to the sewage works. It had a lasting impact. Maybe if more people actually saw how waste is processed and cleaned they'd be more concerned about the process. This is genuinely shocking and horrible.
I think BBC not what is was? Why this journalism so imp-others literally repeating word for word GLA spin. You do not have to be Susan Hall or worse (is that possible?), to know not everything is going well. Housing target? GLA was a classic N Labour project understandably designed to prevent a new GLC emerging. Problem is, assembly is really only for show and Mayors, good, bad and indifferent are barely touched by it. No effective revising powers means awful Mayoral schemes like Boris Bus which normally anybody with half a brain would question, are not being filtered out. London is now subject to the whims. fads and prejudices of one man-notice its always a man so far. Makes Sir Horace renaming the Fleet to Jubilee look fine!
Great reporting and beyond the call of duty (or doody).
Great reporting! I hope BBC London is picking this up!
Ask them to! Email them! They won’t know otherwise.
Great article, Jim. I can only assume this is a national problem, not limited to London.
Yup - the challenge is on other outlets to, er, find the outlets. But I imagine London might be worse…
I think we've had a similar problem in Haddington (Scotland) recently.