Sometimes most of us take our modern plumbing technologies and systems for granted, from a flushing toilet to a running tap of clean drinkable water.  In this day and age no one has to think about the history of the technology.  However, if you care to read, the history of plumbing is long and interesting.

It has been cited that during the centuries when Greeks and the Romans ruled the land, plumbing systems made their way into towns and cities.  The Greeks and Romans used plumbing to take clean water to the cities and dirty water away from public bathing houses which was successful using a network of aqueducts. The Roman way of plumbing was considered sufficient until the nineteenth century when underground piping systems cam around.

Aqueducts were built out of stone or clay while the pipes leading to and from them were fashioned from lead.  Plumbing today, uses vastly different materials such as; plastic, steel, brass and copper.  Lead is no longer used because it is highly toxic. It is suggested that due to Roman bath houses, western plumbing exists in its current form.  

The modern toilet, another staple of modern plumbing systems in the western world, is also derived from ancient times.  The western toilet is largely based upon the toilets used in as long ago as 2800BC.  These toilets were made from a wooden seat that was placed on top of a brick pile. It took as long as the middle of the 1800s for the sit down toilet that was so celebrated in ancient Rome to be adopted by western societies.

Within one hundred years, plumbing technology and toilets have gone from the aqueducts of the Roman Empire to the modern efficiencies that most citizens in the United Kingdom take for granted these days.

Today plumbing technology places pipes underground and the open sewage drains and cesspools associated with the aqueducts are mostly gone.  Plumbing technology, along with the other marvels of the modern world, continues to increase in cleanliness and efficiency.

If you require any type of plumbing, heating or drainage service in London do not to hesitate to contact our plumbers and drainage experts based across London and serving areas such as Kensington, Brixton and Acton.

This article was written by Mark Robinson and our plumbers from Clapham.