"Sewage was the worst problem arising from Tottenham's mid-19th-century expansion. In 1843 the riverside lands were generally malarial and by 1848 some 800 houses discharged their waste into the Moselle alone.

"Tottenham was one of the first areas of Middlesex to take powers under the 1848 Public Health Act to establish in 1850 a permanent Local Board of Health with financial powers and an elect body of 9 members. This enabled the Board to set up a public water supply and associated sewage disposal system. "