[3] Increasing pollution and awareness of its supposed connection with disease, notably typhoid fever and diphtheria, led to public pressure for the establishment of sewage treatment facilities.
[5] Two hundred acres of the land belonging to Aldersbrook Manor and farm had already been sold in 1853 to become the City of London Cemetery,[1] and the local board bought an area to the north of this for the establishment of Wanstead Sewage Works.
Access to the sewage works site was from the west, via a road that became Empress Avenue in the early twentieth century when houses were built.
The sewage gradually percolated through the soil into the under drains, and from these the purified liquid, described as "clear and bright", was released into the River Roding.
[4] The works operated until December 1977, after which it became derelict, controlled by the Thames Water Authority, and then the site passed to the Department of Transport in the 1980s for use as "exchange" land for road building and improvement which would affect Epping Forest.