Labyrinth was first explored and named by Zero who explored its lower sections in early 2007, it is primarily the North Western
storm relief but also incorporates the Brook Green
sewer to some degree. Our visit saw us exploring the previously unchartered
sections of the North Western Storm Relief, from the area of Brook Green up through Notting Hill in to
the area of Westbourne Green just over two miles north-east of our starting point.
Initially heading north, its lower section is
prodominantly of a circular concrete construction with quite a high
water level, the level ceases when a concrete intercepting wall spans the tunnels width to about mid way up it's height.
Usually the water scenario would be the reverse of what we saw, i.e. waters heading southwards would
meet an intercepting wall and be diverted into another sewer. In this case the waters seem to be backed upto the wall
from the lower reaches and beyond the wall northwards the tunnel is dry, hope that made sense? A ten minute walk up the
dry pipe provides some answers to its water-less state, a further smaller wooden intercepting wall marks the end of the
concrete section and
so between the the wooden and concrete walls there is effectively a sealed section which is permenantly dry during regular flow
conditions.
From here on in things started to get much more interesting. The wooden intercepting wall sends the flow from
the main North Western Relief tunnel into the North Kensington storm relief which dissects here running approx south-east.
We weren't expecting the North Western to have very much in the way of water flow as there had been no rainfall for
two weeks straight previous to our visit, it is a storm relief sewer after all. So to see a reasonable amount of rather
poo-flavoured water going through at this point was surprising. We continued upstream in the now incredibly slippery
brick pipe. From here the construction for most of its upstream length is that of a typical mid 1920s London storm relief sewer,
a high grade blue engineering
brick for it's lower half, and a lesser grade red engineering brick in its upper.
The next half mile or so stretch sees no other major pipes joining, but features the usual manhole access niches edged with blue brick,
original wooden water depth measuring gauges all but rotted through barely clinging to their corroded wall brackets,
all the usual little things that make the whole so fascinating. The next major feature is a stairway that takes the main tunnel up some
fifteen foot or so, at its top the same North Kensington storm relief from further downstream here again dissects the main North
Western tunnel. It's an interesting junction and is featured in the first three pictures in the gallery above. One arm of the
North Kensingtom storm relief travels a tiny distance eastwards from this junction until it terminates in a further staircase at the top of which is found
an overflow weir on the north - south running Middle Level No.1 intercepting sewer. A diagram would probably be useful at this point hey? LOL!
Back in the main North Western tunnel we continue further upstream past a 4ft or so storm relief arm that joins from the west via
a narrow stairway, it's completely dry and its steps don't look to have seen any sort of flow for sometime. The main tunnel was still
as slippery as ever and so a short concrete section that afforded much better grip was a welcome relief, never thought I'd be quite so happy to
be in a concrete pipe. The next thing joining from the west immediately explained the amount of poo-flavoured flow in the main pipe, a
recently overhauled branch of what appears to be the Counters creek sewer is emptying a constant amount of flow here. Immediately beyond
it upstream the main North
Western pipe is free of flow as we'd normally have expected for the entire length of such a storm relief sewer. Sadly we don't get to enjoy
much of a walk in the dry brick pipe as it soon terminates at an impressive overflow chamber on the Middle Level No.2 Intercepting sewer.
Water overflowing the Middle Level No.2 sewer here flows down one of two routes, ultimately to the same destination, the main North Western
storm relief tunnel. The main route takes it down three long steps in the chamber then down a regular type stairway and directly into the North Western.
The
secondary route is via a small dropshaft from the bottom of which a 4ft pipe carries the flow past the stairway of the primary route and into the
main North Western tunnel, it's a cool little set up.
This overflow chamber is also home to the coolest drain plant life I've seen, great big shelf fungi the size of your head. They're
gathered in mad clusters around the top of the chamber's dropshaft and as well as the close-up picture above, they can be seen on the walls in
the picture that features st00p on the dropshaft ladder and also the main chamber picture. After spending a good long time photographing
here we packed up our kit and started the two mile walk back downstream to our exit point. Back above ground the humidity was a stark contrast
to the constant underground temperature, the day had all but gone, the air was sweet with the smell of early summer blossom, we walked back to the car
very happy with the trip. Crack open the anti-bacterial baby wipes!
