MCC , Middlesex County Council x Middlesex County Council

The phenomenal growth of population in Middlesex from early 1920s brought problems of peculiar difficulty in sewage disposal. These were partly offset by the district councils extending their local purification works but it was clear that the problem could best be met by co-ordination and centralisation of treatment.

After intensive investigation and report by its consulting engineers, under the guidance of John Duncan Watson, the County Council with difficulty secured one of the last Unemployment Grants and obtained powers to construct and operate a system of trunk sewers, with sewage purification and sludge disposal works, to serve Western Middlesex. The undertaking came into operation in 1935-36 and included the Mogden works, then the largest and most modern full-treatment plant in the world.

Further powers were obtained in 1938 for a similar undertaking to serve North and East Middlesex. Although the Second World War delayed the project, the new works were in operation by 1963. The East Middlesex works served 14 local authorities covering an area of 95 square miles and a population of 710,000. The system included 24 miles of trunk sewers, with a flow of 32,000,000 gallons a day.