Poplar Commission of Sewers

On 18th January 1600 a Commission of Sewers was issued to Sir John Picton and others 'for serten lymitts betwene Lymehouse and Blackwall'. The Commission for 1620 was for 'Stebenheath alias Poplar Marsh', and this with some verbal variations was used for most of the later Commissions.

Early Commissioners of Sewers were solely concerned with land drainage and the prevention of flooding, not with the removal of sewage in the modern sense. In 1531 an Act of Sewers was passed which set out in great detail the duties and powers of Commissioners and governed their work until the 19th century. Gradually a permanent pattern emerged in the London area of seven commissions, five north and two south of the Thames, with, after the Great Fire, a separate commission for the City of London. The London commissioners had more extensive powers than those in other parts of the country; they had control over all watercourses and ditches within two miles of the City of London as well as newly constructed drains and sewers. After 1800 the London commissioners also obtained powers to control the formation of new sewers and house drains.