Sir Joseph Bazalgette: Victorian genius engineer, friend of Brunel, builder of the London sewer system and amazing pumping stations, saver of tens of thousands of Londoner's lives. You too can use Wikipedia here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bazalgette
Facebook status: DEAD (1819 - 1891)
Why do I mention this? His tomb is in Wimbledon churchyard, not far from where I live, and it was in a pretty bad state of repair. The railings were rusting away, the vault doors were flaking paint more than a Victorian Lunatic Asylum and the brick vaulted ceiling is collapsing. It was overgrown with weeds and rubbish was piled up against the walls. Not a fitting monument to a great man.
1. Before: (This photo credit to sarflondondunc, Flickr)
2. Flaking paint
3. Inside the tomb
Being someone who has to fix things I considered a night-time ninja guerilla repair mission but then decided it would be a lot easier to ask permission. It would be a lot of work and those night vision goggles eat through batteries. So I contacted Rev. Mary, who discussed it with the church wardens, who then consulted English Heritage because it is a registered monument.
After a few months, permission was given and I started work. Some significant flaking paint destruction, rust treatment, painting and tidying later, the place is looking considerably better.
4. After
5. After
Why am I bothering to write this up? There is still a serious problem with the vaulted ceiling collapsing inside. It is going to be difficult to fix. If anyone knows of funding sources for some serious repairs or know a proper stonemason who can give an assessment, please get in touch. And those railings are knackered - they really need replacing.
If you have links into Thames Water, maybe their repair team would consider restoring the vault masonry. It would be a fitting tribute to their former employee whose engineering feats are still going strong today, nearly 150 years later.
6. Collapsing vaulted ceiling
LF :freak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bazalgette
Facebook status: DEAD (1819 - 1891)
Why do I mention this? His tomb is in Wimbledon churchyard, not far from where I live, and it was in a pretty bad state of repair. The railings were rusting away, the vault doors were flaking paint more than a Victorian Lunatic Asylum and the brick vaulted ceiling is collapsing. It was overgrown with weeds and rubbish was piled up against the walls. Not a fitting monument to a great man.
1. Before: (This photo credit to sarflondondunc, Flickr)
2. Flaking paint
3. Inside the tomb
Being someone who has to fix things I considered a night-time ninja guerilla repair mission but then decided it would be a lot easier to ask permission. It would be a lot of work and those night vision goggles eat through batteries. So I contacted Rev. Mary, who discussed it with the church wardens, who then consulted English Heritage because it is a registered monument.
After a few months, permission was given and I started work. Some significant flaking paint destruction, rust treatment, painting and tidying later, the place is looking considerably better.
4. After
5. After
Why am I bothering to write this up? There is still a serious problem with the vaulted ceiling collapsing inside. It is going to be difficult to fix. If anyone knows of funding sources for some serious repairs or know a proper stonemason who can give an assessment, please get in touch. And those railings are knackered - they really need replacing.
If you have links into Thames Water, maybe their repair team would consider restoring the vault masonry. It would be a fitting tribute to their former employee whose engineering feats are still going strong today, nearly 150 years later.
6. Collapsing vaulted ceiling
LF :freak
That's a disgrace that his vaulted tomb is falling apart when his sewers are in as good a nick as the day they were built - did anything ever get repaired? Happy 200th J Bizz
