‘Official’ photographs of sewers are sometimes fairly scarce on the net, this is especially true for London. Those found have always contained recognisable sections of well trodden locations such as the Fleet or Westbourne, nothing left to the imagination.

Theres just something i love about the sewer network of london. Like a pirate treasure trail of drains, just when you think its all over, bang new possibilities flow from the side pipes like last nights curry. X may mark the spot, but sometimes the map might not be accurate. The past few months have been somewhat of a re-sweep of London, rechecking old leads and continuing along the tunnels and sidepipes we gave up with before.

I’m often asked why i seem to only focus my attention on abandoned stations within the London Underground, why not layups, disused branches and the sub stations that power the lines? Well the short answer to that, i don’t think any of the above are worth the risk.

For over four years now, myself along with many others have stooped, stomped and slipped under and across london’s bowels, through sewage, grease, fat and mystery content “X”, always wondering what the next bend had to bring. Our deep fascination with the history that Victorian sewers had to offer encouraging us to brave even the most poopiest of pipes. But what happens when the sewer is less then a year old, holds no immediate constructional intrigue and has a historical value of 0. What then is left to tempt the bright eye’ d traveller into its depths?

When it comes to massive drains Niagara really takes a lot to beat. The now defunct power generating infrastructure that once littered the area has given way to a multitude of tunnels and tailraces that on their own easily justify a trip to Canada. Tonight we planned on visiting one of those tunnels. The William B. Rankine Generating Station Tailrace.

So here we have our next drain of the trip, Humble Howard. Not much to say about this one really, which is surprising given its size. Waders on, onwards to the steaming manhole.