Standing on the landscaped Greenway, you are in fact standing over a giant sewer.

The Northern Outfall Sewer was part of Joseph Bazalgette’s solution to London’s chronic drainage and sewerage problems. Built between 1860 and 1865, it was part of a network of over 1,300 miles of brick sewers and four pumping stations.

The embankment over the Northern Outfall Sewer is 4.5 miles long and runs from Wick Lane in Bow to Beckton. It has long been used as a footpath and was known as ‘Sewerbank’.

In 1931 it even became the temporary haunt of a rather distinguished visitor: Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi spent 3 months at Kingsley Hall, just south of here, for discussions on the future of colonial India. He liked to take early-morning walks along Sewerbank as it offered elevated views and a chance to meet the locals.

In the 1990s the embankment was renovated and rebranded as the Greenway. It does not attempt to hide its fascinating past, the signage on the foot and cycle-path is even made out of old sewer pipes. More landscaping has taken place here as legacy works following the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.