The one that properly started it off for me. River Westbourne. One of the "lost rivers" of London. A mixture of large junctions, reliefs and some sereously mad chambers.

Was my first taste of "true" draining and i as you can see it got me hooked. Met up with my fellow drainers at about 9pm. After a little bit of searching we found the way in. Down the ladder we came out into a yellow bricked pipe in the shape of a train tunnel. We could hear rushing in the distance so we went towards that.

We came to a large slope which lead into the main westbourne junction, a large chamber with pipes going off in three different directions. The curved roof was something to be seen by everyone and showed just how much effort the Victorians put into building their sewers and drains.

First aim of the day was to head north, up the main tunnel. Ten minutes in we came to a exit point by a large set of spiral stairs which from my point where almost impossible to capture on film. a bit further on we came to a large chamber with three barrier walls coming down from a large sewer running behind. We took a few snaps then headed back towards the main junction and "the egg".

The egg is a large relief in the shape of yes you guessed it. An egg. A large red brick pipe lead of to the right while the pipe to the left got smaller and headed off towards the tyburn. For now we chose to follow the larger pipe. Which unfortuantly was uneventful to the very end. Bar a large drop shaft/storage tank made of concrete.

Back to the main junction and this time heading down the sewer. After passing a few rats and floating "wonders" we came to a very steep slide which dropped the sewer into the low level. The noise was tremendous. we took a few pictures then called it a day so we headed back up out out. We will return here eventually.

Trip 2 "The Other End'

Well what can i say a bit of a odd night, Our original aim was to have a visit to both "The Egg" and "Stoops limit". So a bit of preparation we and with bot Dsankt and Loops in the car we headed to our first target, "The Egg".

We parked up and set of trying to find the entrance. With a bit of searching around we found a cover. So we sent trusty ds down to check it out. he came back and reported it was a 5ft egg shapes pipe. Hmm as we were a little bit far from where the main pipe was supposed to be we debated whether it would join up. We decided we might as well have a look so after 2 minutes of backbreaking fun the pipe opened up to a 7ft high pipe and eventually to a dead end.....


We headed back out and up to the top and decided to check the main road where the pipe lay under. And sure enough we found two covers. We chose our target and headed down. We entered into a large yellow and black split brick pipe, around 8/9ft tall, with rushing sounds to the left and to the right, so we headed towards the river.

After a bit of walking loops started to wonder if this actually was the egg. I wasn't sure but was fairly confident as it was in the right place and from what i remembered about the pictures roughly the right size. The only way to tell was to check the outfall.

We passed several run off pipes and several held back with large planks of wood and doorstops!. 10 minutes later we found ourselves 100% confident that this wasn't the egg. We stood over a slide taking the water down into the low level embankment sever with a small platform over the other side housing the large Thames outfall flap.

We took a few pictures then headed back towards the other end to see where it led. Just up from our access the tunnel curves in a s bend with 2 perfect 90 degree bends. A little bit further up a 5ft concrete pipe connected with what appeared to be a ladder and brick junction at the end although we will explore that another time, a bit further we came to another outfall flap with a small current of water spilling out of the bottom.

I wonder whats behind it?. Odd oh well we headed back up topside and after a quick look at the outfall due to the others being tired. Awww. We headed home.