![Pincerno - Lindley-Denkmal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Pincerno_-_Lindley-Denkmal.jpg)
William Lindley (7 September 1808 in London – 22 May 1900 in
Blackheath, London
Blackheath is an area in Southeast London, straddling the border of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham. It is located northeast of Lewisham, south of Greenwich, London, Greenwich and southeast of Charing Cross, ...
), was an English engineer who together with his sons designed
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...
and
sewerage systems for over 30 cities across Europe.
Life
As a young engineer he worked together with
Marc Isambard Brunel
Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (, ; 25 April 1769 – 12 December 1849) was a French-British engineer who is most famous for the work he did in Britain. He constructed the Thames Tunnel and was the father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Born in Franc ...
and
Francis Giles
Francis Giles (1787–1847) was a canal engineer and surveyor who worked under John Rennie and later became a railway engineer.
Works and appointments
* Kent & Sussex Junction Canal 1811 – with Netlam Giles surveyed the route as part of Jo ...
. In 1834 he went to Germany as Giles' assistant to survey the railway route from
Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...
to
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
. A few years later, in 1838, he was commissioned to build the
Hamburg-Bergedorf Railway Company
The Hamburg-Bergedorf railway opened in 1842 is one of the oldest lines in Germany and was the first railway line in Northern Germany. The 16.5 km long line was extended to Berlin in 1846.
It linked Bergedorf Station (German: ''Bergedorfe ...
(german: link=no, Hamburg-Bergedorfer Eisenbahn), the first railway line which was carried out in northern Germany. The official opening had to be cancelled as a
catastrophic fire in May 1842 left a third of the town in ruins. Lindley became a member of the Technical Commission for the reconstruction of the town centre (with Alexis de Chateauneuf,
Gottfried Semper and others) and designed the first fundamental plan for the reconstruction of the city. For the engineer, who had already been commissioned to design a new sewer system for Hamburg, the destruction was an opportunity to modernise the city.
His designs, influenced by English social reformer and public health inspector
Edwin Chadwick, included the first underground sewers in continental Europe. Within three years 11 km of sewers had been built in Hamburg, and Lindley began work on a waterworks to supply the city with drinking water. In the following years he helped design and build water systems in a number of other German cities and towns such as
Altona,
Stralsund and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
.
At Hamburg Lindley developed an increasing interest in
urban planning
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...
. In 1840 he was commissioned to drain the
Hammerbrook marshes, east of the
town centre
A town centre is the commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town. Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train or bus s ...
of Hamburg. This drainage system, which was implemented by the construction of a grid of canals connected by locks with the
Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...
river (1842–47), provided the basis of the first modern suburb at Hamburg, primarily as an industrial area. In 1855 he also designed an early master plan for the development of the areas west of the town centre. But as his design for the
Hamburg harbour (1845, with
James Walker and Heinrich Hübbe) was used, the plan was not carried out.
Due to the re-organisation of the Hamburg building authorities he gave up his position as a consultant of the Baudeputation in 1860, and moved with his family to London, including his three young sons –
William Heerlein Lindley (born 1853), Robert Searles Lindley (born 1854) and Joseph Lindley (born 1859). In 1863 he began work on the sewerage system of
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, the benefits of which became apparent as between 1868 and 1883 the
death rate
Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of de ...
from
typhoid
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several d ...
fell from 80 to 10 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Lindley's designs were in demand across Europe, and together with his sons he built systems for cities in Germany (including
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
) and elsewhere, including
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
,
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
,
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
and Moscow.
[https://www.erih.net/how-it-started/stories-about-people-biographies/biography/lindley] In 1876 the Australian city of Sydney even asked him to design a sewer system for them, but he turned them down as he had just been commissioned by
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
in
Tsarist Poland.
Between 1876 and 1878 he designed the
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
waterworks, which were constructed between 1881 and 1889 under the direction of his son, William Heerlein Lindley. To this day, there is a street in Warsaw named after him, which goes around the historical waterworks. Also named after the Lindleys' handiwork is "Filter Street" (''ulica Filtrowa''). As an interesting sidenote, the system that William Lindley designed for Warsaw is still operational, and the last sewer collector of his design was not replaced until 2001.
Memorials
* Lindley memorial is located in Hamburg near underground station Baumwall at the entrance to sewage system,
* An exhibition to celebrate his 200th birthday took place from 2008 to 2009 in the
hamburgmuseum
The Museum for Hamburg History () is a history museum located in the city of Hamburg in northern Germany. The museum was established in 1908 and opened at its current location in 1922, although its parent organization was founded in 1839. The muse ...
, Hamburg: "Designer of the modern city. William Lindley in Hamburg and Europe (1808–1900)".
* The small "Lindleystraße" in Hamburg's
Rothenburgsort.
* "Lindleystraße" in Frankfurt am Main's Osthafen district, on which is located a hotel named "Das Lindley Lindenberg".
* An English Heritage Blue Plaque commemorating William Lindley and his son Sir William Heerlein Lindley was unveiled on 22 April 2015 at 74 Shooters Hill Road, London SE3 7BG.
* A memorial bench to Lindley and his sons is located in Multimedialny Fountain Park, near the Old Town in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. The bench is fashioned out of water pipes, with a statue of Lindley standing next to it, his hand turning a stopcock.
Further reading
* Gustav Leo, William Lindley. Ein Pionier der technischen Hygiene, Hamburg 1969.
* Ortwin Pelc/ Susanne Grötz (Ed.), Konstrukteur der modernen Stadt. William Lindley in Hamburg und Europa 1808–1900, exhibition catalogue
Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte
The Museum for Hamburg History () is a history museum located in the city of Hamburg in northern Germany. The museum was established in 1908 and opened at its current location in 1922, although its parent organization was founded in 1839. The muse ...
01.10.2008–22.09.2008, Hamburg 2008 (Schriftenreihe des Hamburgischen Architekturarchivs).
* Lindleyowie Dzieje inzynierskiego rodu, Ryszard Zelichowski
References
External links
* Norbert Wierecky: Ingenieurportrait von William Lindley. Pionier der technischen Hygiene. In
Deutsche Bauzeitung, Bd. 137 (2003), 6, S.84–90, Online-Version (PDF)
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindley, William
1808 births
1900 deaths
People from Blackheath, London
English civil engineers
Presidents of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers