Plumber & drainage engineers in Strand & Aldwych

The Strand runs from Trafalgar Square to the edge of the City, and the streets around it mix hotels, theatres, offices, university buildings and restaurants. King’s College London, Somerset House, the Savoy and the Aldwych theatres all sit within a few minutes of each other, with flats tucked into the side streets running down towards the river. Most of WC2R, WC2N and WC2B is in the City of Westminster, though the northern end of WC2B around Kingsway and Drury Lane crosses into Camden.

Below ground the area is heavily engineered. The Victoria Embankment, built in the 1860s, carries one of Joseph Bazalgette’s intercepting sewers alongside the District line, and the streets between the Strand and the river drop steeply towards it. Buildings here often have deep basements and vaults, and some sit below the level of the sewer they drain into. That means pumped drainage, long internal runs and, in older buildings, cast-iron and clay pipework that has been altered many times over the years.

Hotels, theatres and restaurants put heavy, uneven loads on that drainage. A full house at a theatre or a busy evening at a hotel can expose a partial blockage that has been building for months. We clear blocked drains and sewer connections with high-pressure water jetting, then use a CCTV camera to inspect the line and the manholes. If the survey finds damage, we explain the options, from no-dig relining to excavation, and confirm the price before any work starts.

Access is a real consideration. The Strand is a busy bus route, the stretch around St Mary le Strand is now closed to traffic, Victoria Embankment is a red route, and loading on the side streets is tightly controlled. The whole area is in the Congestion Charge zone and ULEZ. Our engineers know where they can stop and carry kit the last part on foot when they need to. We are open 24 hours, so night work for hotels and theatres is straightforward to arrange.