The Thames Tideway, a £5 billion tunnel beneath the Thames to deal with sewage overflows has just been completed in London. This solution looks strikingly like one built over 150 years ago, by Sir Joseph Bazalgette. This thesis asks why the Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT), a centralised, engineering-heavy solution was chosen over more sustainable and distributed alternatives. Why, in an age of climate urgency are we still building bigger pipes? The thesis argues that the answer lies not only in technical feasibility but in deeply embedded cultural narratives, institutional habits, and financial models.
The first part of the thesis explores how the legacy of Sir Joseph Bazalgette has been mythologised and invoked to legitimise the TTT today. The second part draws on the concepts of sociotechnical imaginaries and historical institutionalism, examining how professional values, government policy frameworks, and investment structures become entrenched and reinforce techno-optimistic views, taken as ‘common sense’.
The thesis brings together cultural analysis and a historical institutionalist approach to planning theory to show how the past constrains the future, not just through physical systems, but through stories we tell ourselves. By exposing these narratives, imaginaries, and structures, the thesis argues for a more just, reflective, and democratic planning of infrastructure. In the interest of ecological resilience, we must reimagine our cultural views of water, waste, and how we live with the environment, to avoid getting stuck in the past.