sovet-gagarin.org – When the Romans founded Londinium around 43 AD, they brought more than legions—they imported a knack for sanitation that left echoes beneath modern London. The Roman sewage system, though rudimentary by today’s standards, was a marvel of engineering for its time, designed to tame the marshy banks of the Thames and keep their fledgling city livable. Unlike medieval London’s later squalor, the Romans laid the groundwork for urban hygiene with drains and sewers that still intrigue archaeologists.
Evidence from sites like 1 Poultry reveals stone-lined culverts snaking from buildings to the Thames, stretching over 65 meters in some cases. These channels, often paired with timber or brick drains, whisked away wastewater and runoff, a nod to Rome’s Cloaca Maxima. Public latrines, like those preserved elsewhere in Britain, featured grooved channels for sponge-on-stick cleaning—a far cry from the open cesspits of later eras. Yet, not all homes tapped into this network; many relied on pits or ditches, hinting at a system more practical than perfect. By the time Rome withdrew in 410 AD, these drains faded, leaving London to rediscover sanitation centuries later under Bazalgette’s Victorian sewers.
