In 2004 my wife and I started photographing and seeking out an item of street furniture which until then we had barely noticed. And when not completely invisible, we had no idea what it's function was.
These poles, scattered around south London, as it soon became apparent, were an important part of our sewer system, designed to release excess gases that build up down there, and also designed to release those gases high enough into the air that the smells would not offend London's gentle-folk, going about their lawful business.
We started photographing - noticing the sometimes ornate designs, and manufacturers' stamps to be found on them. Attempted some research into the history and started mapping them across London.
since then the blog was set up http://stinkpipes.blogspot.com/ but fell into disuse about 2/3 years ago as my career took off & found less time to maintain it.
but now, with a little more time, three years of uncatalogued stinkpipe spots and with access to many more useful online tools such as Twitter and mapping websites, I have decided to resume this project, with a new Blog, and a Twitter account @stinkpipes .
I hope you can join me in this. It's simple. Take a picture of a stinkpipe you have seen. Send it to me via Twitter and state it's location. I will do the rest!
Thanks for reading and I hope you can send me many stench / stink pipes in the future!
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