BUILT ON SAND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 52, Issue 205, 11 June 1932, Page 2

BUILT ON SAND.

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. The streams and lakes under the City of London are to, be explored and charted for the first time. The task has been begun by the staff of St. Paul's Cathedral, and already they dug through the floor of the crypt. For a long time it has been known that the cathedral rests on sand, which is kept wet by never-failing streams. But it is only during a very dry season that the fabric is affected. Even then it only sinks a few thousandths of an inch, but there is. a danger that if the great buildings were put up close by, the basement would cause many of the streams to be diverted. In this case the sands under the cathedral might dry up and the fabric would be in peril. i It is to prevent this that the members of the cathedral staff are trying to map the underground water system round St. Paul's. When they have completed their work they will make 'contour maps and a model, and as soon as a new building scheme is proposed they will be able to say whether it would dam up a stream (running under the cathedral. It is now known that the foundations of St. Paul's are merely rubble, and that nowhere are they more than four feet below the crypt floor. Thus is it extremely important that the subsoil should not be interfered with in any way.