Event Page The Thames Tideway Tunnel - London Museum of Water and Steam

The Thames Tideway Tunnel

A talk by Phil Stride

Thursday April 23, 18:00-19:00

Beneath the streets of London lies one of the UK’s most ambitious engineering projects: the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

Built to tackle sewage pollution in the River Thames, this 25-km “super sewer” captures millions of tonnes of overflow that once spilled into the river during heavy rain. Completed in 2025, it’s a modern extension of the Victorian system first designed by Joseph Bazalgette.

This talk explores the story behind the project—how it was built deep beneath the city, the engineering challenges involved, and how it’s helping create a cleaner, healthier Thames for the future.

Phil Stride is a civil engineer by trade and has a wealth of experience managing both clean water and wastewater projects in the UK and overseas. He was a Director at Tideway until 2020. Phil led the widely praised public consultation and development consent application process for the project, one of the largest planning applications ever submitted in the UK. Prior to Tideway he worked for Thames Water for over 40 years and held several senior manager positions in both engineering and operations. Phil now works as a consultant and is involved with the proposed new storage reservoir near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a Member of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management.