Paul's Pasta Steamer (Paul's Wharf Sewer), London
First off thanks to JD for giving me a heads up on this one a couple of years ago now having ventured down here with Stoop
Having walked the route above ground a couple of times, I was reluctant to push my luck solo on this one, add to that the shortage of breathers and manholes which was also a concern
In the end, finding a suitable victim proved just as difficult, cue Adders
:It goes without saying the place was pretty grim, I only managed a few pics and they are mostly crap because of the steamy conditions down there
I guess packin' more glass than a leading glazing wholesaler was always going to present problems..
The pics will have to do, I WON'T EVER be going back down, it was pretty grim and juggling 3-4ft pipes filled with stagnant water, stale turds and H2S to see the main spectacle wasn't my idea of fun!
By the time we hit the streets we were both covered in that much filth it was an embarrassment, I tip my hat to Adders for enduring this shit fest
I took the advice originally given and stayed away from the 'dodgy cover' and instead opted for the same convoluted trip up from the Fleet
The journey begins in a less than 4ft side pipe from the Fleet mainline, as the original Ludgate Hill connection appears to have been severed by the tube at some point in the distant past
50m of what I can only describe as scraping along on our knees was our first contender, luckily the flow was minimal and Adders wasn't too far behind
A cheeky screen grab from Adders' video clip
Respite came in the form of a slightly larger concrete diversion with a much newer drop shaft having been installed for access/inspection
We parked our arses for a minute, at which point I noticed some rather fresh looking tyre tracks heading upstream, so much so the track marks on the upper invert looked no more than a few hours old
You can just about make out the tunnel in the distance as it heads right, it was just around here it changed back to 3/4ft brick egg
The pipe twisted slightly as we once again scraped our way through, this time a number of smaller connecting sewers join which just makes it all the more fun
Eventually it straightened, with a short stretch of a taller brick construction allowing us to stand up for a quick rest
*Note the smaller VC pipe in the foreground, I was just about to take another pic and it let rip, splashing it's load everywhere and resulted in me getting soaking No.1
Off to the left (looking downstream) was a slightly bigger stepped brick pipe, this is a croucher for around 150m as it heads down Old Bailey and connects with the Ludgate Hill sewer
Sadly I didn't get any pics here as we needed to move fast before the restaurants and bars closed up shop and started dumping their left-overs
The flow was minimal and it was quite tall, yet narrow, around 160m and we landed underneath the West entrance of St. Paul's Cathedral
This was it, the dreaded 'Rat Run' we had read about.. As the two 4ft pipes bear left and right and circle St. Paul's we already knew we needed to take the right-hand branch
We both did a double take and looked at each other both lost for words momentarily
I can't vouch for Adders at that point but as if the less than 4ft brick crawl pipe wasn't bad enough it was made worse by the fact it was rotten to the core
With at least 6 inches of festering shyte and visible foul connections again, along with heaps of rotting food & stale turds and bog roll left stranded
I'll be honest I wasn't keen and we debated fucking it off and finding the nearest lid out, which would have been another challenge had we accepted it
I decided to head up 10m and see what the meter was saying, not a murmur despite the terrible smell
Having walked it above ground it doesn't appear to be that much of a distance before it joins Paul's Wharf sewer, so we agreed I'd attempt to crawl/scrape through
As I neared the first bend there were rats, and then more, they were running in all directions, frantically trying to escape the light
The majority scurried off quick with a number of them running back at me which was far from ideal as there was barely room for myself
More foul connections, the flow hampered by the amount of silt and food waste and turds backed up.. Rice, Pasta and rotting vegetables mixed with p00p certainly made for some kind of sick broth!
Every now and then Adders called to see how I was getting on, I wasn't, progress was slow and H2S was now present
I soldiered on, as if nothing else I was determined to find a lid out in case we decided to sack it
Eventually I made it through and further round I could stand up in a shaft with a manky ladder, a good 20ft down was Paul's Wharf sewer, above at least another 15ft to a split lid in the road
Having shouted back to Adders to crack on I descended the ladder into Paul's Wharf, which was a sizeable Oval/Egg affair
I headed on down to a stepped section passing a number of side pipes along the way, and could hear the interceptor in the distance
I'd left my gear upstream at this point and I decided I best head back and wait for him
A while later he was descending the ladder, we unpacked our gear in a small recess to a laddered manhole and went about taking some pics
As I headed down I noticed the first side pipe which was previously dry had started going some, conscious of the time and the source we proceeded with caution
Sorry the pics are wank, it was just too slippery and steamy and I'd lost the will to live by this point
Paul's Wharf Sewer constructed circa 1690/1700
Stepped Tunnel
Now this was the last pic I took
As I went to set-up another shot the side pipe went mental, I quickly moved my camera out of the way as it got much worse and knocked me off my feet and into the sewer I went
It was filled with cleaning materials and was far from a pleasant experience, having picked myself up the meter was indicating rapid levels of H2S
I now noticed the other 2 side pipes further down started going mental, so I headed back upstream to Adders to inform him we probably need to get out at this point as it would probably get worse
I wasn't wrong, as we were packing up the flow picked up further and it went from reasonably chilled to me being very anxious and keen to GTFO, which we promptly did!
We exited via the nearest lid, it was far from ideal but no way was I repeating the journey back the way we came, flow or no flow
Sadly pics of the section beneath the District & Circle line and the Low Level Interceptor No.1 as the sewer was diverted some 100m before the Thames I don't have
Luckily Adders had the GoPro rolling for much of it, and looking forward to seeing that and his pics, as they surely can't be as piss poor as mine
Thanks for looking
