28 March is the birth anniversary of Joseph Bazalgette, the Victorian engineer who masterminded London’s modern sewer system. Learn how Bazalgette helped clear the city’s streets of poo, and how you’re still benefiting from his genius every time you flush.
How did London get rid of its sewage in the olden days?
Bazalgette’s pumping stations – cathedrals of sewage
They served to remove waste from the metropolis. Crossness Pumping Station, now a Grade I listed building, was designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette and architect Charles Henry Driver. It was opened on 4 April 1865 by Edward, Prince of Wales.
Who cleaned up Victorian London?
Soon after the new Palace of Westminster was opened by Queen Victoria more than 160 years ago, London suffered a sweltering hot summer.
Who Solved the Great Stink?
The shrewd and observant physician John Snow was about to challenge that. During the cholera outbreak of 1848 – 49 he noticed that death rates were higher in the areas where water was provided by two companies: the Lambeth, and the Southwark and Vauxhall Water Company.
Who was commissioned to develop London’s sewerage system after in the Great Stink When was this?
The civic infrastructure overseeing the management of London’s sewers had gone through several changes in the 19th century. In 1848 the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers (MCS) was established at the urging of the social reformer Edwin Chadwick and a Royal Commission.
Why was Victorian London so smelly?
The Great Stink, as was named the horrendous smell given off by the Thames, plagued London for a great many years during the Victorian era. Prior to the construction of the current system, the Thames was London’s sewer, full of human remains, human waste, animal waste, rubbish, industrial outflow.
What did London smell like in the 1800s?
In the 19th century, London was the capital of the largest empire the world had ever known — and it was infamously filthy. It had choking, sooty fogs; the Thames River was thick with human sewage; and the streets were covered with mud.
What did Victorians smell like?
By the middle of the Victorian era, bergamot and lemon oil had surpassed Eau de Cologne to become the most popular fragrance for women. According to Goodman: “Bergamot and lemon oil, sometimes employed separately but more often used in combination, was the signature smell of the middle years of the century.
What did the great stink smell like?
In the steaming hot summer of 1858, the hideous stench of human excrement rising from the River Thames and seeping through the hallowed halls of the Houses of Parliament finally got too much for Britain’s politicians – those who had not already fled in fear of their lives to the countryside.
Are Victorian sewers still used?
The Victorian brick-lined tunnels are still the basis of London’s sewer system even today, thanks to Joseph Bazalgette’s foresight. Alternative proposals for the Metropolitan sewers proposed narrow-bore pipes, which would have been big enough to carry away the waste of the population of London in the 1850s.
What does London smell like?
There’s a heady aroma of car exhaust fumes, fuel and dust overpowering Londoners’ nostrils (perhaps unsurprisingly). But not far behind, the smell of the natural world – flowers, plants, trees and grass – is enveloping our noses.
How many people died in the Great Stink of London?
40,000 people died of Cholera in London alone
Between 1831 and 1866, approximately 40,000 people died from cholera in London alone. London’s first major cholera outbreak struck in 1831 when the disease claimed 6,536 lives. A second epidemic killed 14,136 between 1848–49.
How did the Great Stink end?
In Britain, and London in particular, after the deaths of tens of thousands, acts were passed to rid city streets of open sewers and cesspits. The solution appeared simple: run all the waste disposal channels directly into the Thames River.
What happens to London sewage?
We pass the treated wastewater through a final settlement tank, where the useful bacteria sink to the bottom. This forms more sludge, which we recycle back to the secondary treatment stage. The clean water then passes over a wall near the top of the tank.
How old are London’s sewers?
London’s 150-year-old sewage system is today struggling under the strain of the city’s ever-increasing population, which is now nearly 9 million.
Where does sewage go in London?
Gravity allows the sewage to flow eastwards, but in places such as Chelsea, Deptford and Abbey Mills, pumping stations were built to raise the water and provide sufficient flow. Many sewers north of the Thames feed into the Northern Outfall Sewer, which transports sewage to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works.
What is the smelliest place on earth?
The smelliest places on Earth
- Seal Island, South Africa | Seals. Unless you’ve been to Seal Island, it’s unlikely you have ever considered what a seal smells like.
- St Lucia | Chocolate.
- Mexico City, Mexico | Sewage.
- Isparta, Turkey | Roses.
- Ijen Volcano, Java | Sulphur.
How did people deal with body odor in the 1800s?
People’s daily washing consisted of a splash of cold water from a basin usually in the kitchen or bedchamber. [5] They washed the bits that showed namely the face, the feet, and the hands. This daily washing helped George or Betty start off their day smelling fresh but it didn’t last long in the brutal Virginia summer.
What did medieval London smell like?
An episode of the 2011 BBC TV documentary Filthy Cities describes the streets of London in the 1300s. They were ankle-deep in a putrid mix of wet mud, rotten fish, garbage, entrails, and animal dung.
Did they wear deodorant in the 1800s?
Deodorant was introduced in the late 1800s.
The first deodorant that killed odor-causing bacteria was called Mum and it was trademarked in 1888. It was a waxy cream that came in a metal tin and used zinc oxide to fight odor. Back then, deodorant was a fairly novel idea, as most women simply used perfume to smell fresh.
How did people deal with body odor before deodorant?
Before deodorant was introduced in the late-1800s, women used a combination of regular washing and copious amounts of perfume to combat body odor—and at the time, body odor was not considered an issue for men as it was viewed as masculine.