Only in Cologne by Duncan J.D. Smith

70 25 Innenstadt The Underground Chandelier Innenstadt (Neustadt-Nord) (Borough 1), the Chandelier Hall (Kronleuchtersaal) on the corner of Theodor-Heuss-Ring and Clever Strasse Stadtbahn 12, 15, 16, 18 Ebertplatz; Bus 127, 140 In 1828 the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) made reference to the lack of sewers in Cologne by noting that the city had “two and seventy stenches, All well defined, and several stinks!” It is difficult to imagine what it must have been like to live in such a city be- tween the medieval period and the first half of the nineteenth century. Like other cities across Europe Cologne’s population was burgeoning – and so too was its volume of wastewater. With no means to process it, raw sewage was channelled into the river along open ditches, filling the narrow streets of the Altstadt with noxious odours and facilitating the spread of disease. The first modern sewage systems in Europe were built in London and Paris during the 1850s, and consisted of a radial network of brick- built tunnels conveying effluent discreetly away from built-up areas. Unfortunately for Cologne, a safe and reliable public water supply was not made available until 1863, despite repeated (and apparently unaf- fordable) offers from both German and English hydraulic engineers (see no. 39). The first modern sewer system took even longer and was not inaugurated until 1890, some eighteen hundred years after the Ro- mans had first attempted such a thing (see no. 1). Cologne’s nineteenth century sewer system can be visited every last Saturday in the month between March and September on a fas- cinating tour offered by the city’s drainage and flood service depart- ment (Stadtentwässerungsbetriebe Köln) (www.steb-koeln.de) . This rarely-seen world is entered by means of a sturdy steel trap door at the corner of Clever Strasse and Theodor-Heuss-Ring (Neustadt-Nord). A steep staircase leads downwards to where a service tunnel connects to a subterranean chamber known as the Regenentlastungsbauwerk. With a width of 3.8 metres and a height of 4.6 metres this surprisingly el- egant space gives access to an important junction of the city’s network of storm and wastewater drains (it is interesting to note that this par- ticular location was selected because previously it had been a harbour, created immediately north of the medieval city wall during the French occupation).