Ever since our first trip to the Fleet Sewer we had hoped to access its associated storm relief tunnel. The storm relief was built as part of Bazalgette's intercepting sewer system around 1870 and is constructed primarily of characteristic yellow brick for its upper two thirds, with a higher grade brown engineering brick for its lower section, we knew we were in for a treat.

Once we had negotiated our entry point we found ourselves stood in a narrow brick built passageway at the top of a stone paved spiral stairway. The steps twist down and around to a depth of some fifty feet at it's bottom where it meets the storm relief tunnel. Even the very first step had an inch of silt and sanitary matter deposited evenly across its surface, so this baby has filled up to near bubbling out of the manhole covers, London's Victorian storm drainage is clearly ill equipped to handle present day London's storm surges! We'd seen similar in Deep Ochre.

On the two and half mile walk downstream to the Thames we came across several small junction chambers, connections with various intercepting sewers and one or two bigger more elaborate junction chambers. Towards its lower reaches the storm relief has accessible connections with the Fleet Sewer and becomes a confusing mass of interlinking brick tunnels, shafts, and metal work.

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