Tower Hamlets Commission of Sewers

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.

Although as early as May 1598 a commission of sewers was issued "for her Mats. Mills called Chrashe Milles in the parishes of St. Botulphes without Algate London and St Marge Matfellon alias Whitechapple in the Countie of Middx" (The National Archives: Ind. 4208 Crown Office Docquet Book) no continuing commission for the Tower Hamlets area (as distinct from the Poplar area) seems to have been established until 1686 (The National Archives: Ind. 4215 Crown Office Docquet Book). The jurisdiction of the Commission covered parts of East London including Spitalfields, Mile End, Shadwell, Smithfield, Whitechapel, Wapping, Limehouse, Stepney, Poplar, Blackwall, Tower Hill, Bethnal Green, Bow, Bromley, Stratford, Hackney, Ratcliff and Clapton.