The Great Stink of 1858
When you live in an era so bad, that even contemporaries of the time dubbed the event “The Great Stink” and people living nearly two centuries later agree, you know that you are obviously living in a very disgusting period indeed.
18 Bizarre Facts About the 1858 Great Stink of London
That is why I have taken it upon myself to use the word “disgusting” along with some other equally unpleasant names approximately a hundred times (or more, I lost count) throughout my answer so that one will appreciate how disgusting the situation truly was.
I just hope that modern Londoners will forgive such usage in the same way that Londoners at the time have, for I am certain they had much dirtier words to describe their situation.
The year was 1858, and the Thames River in London had endured centuries of human fecal matter, as well as every other unpleasant thing you can think about, being dumped into the river.
Before the age of modern sewers and plumbing, human waste was “conveniently” placed in the Thames or any other nearby body of water, depending on where one lived.
While nineteenth-century London was far from unique for having this type of policy, being the norm would not save them from a stink so bad that London itself was nearly replaced as the Capital of England, due to the unbearable situation that Londoners, including Queen Victoria and Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli found themselves in.
Even though modernised sewers were indeed under construction by the beginning of the nineteenth century, they were not sufficient for the bursting population of London, nor did the sewers change the ultimate destination of all human waste.
Above: Saint Paul’s Cathedral In London During The 1850s When Things Were Getting Really Disgusting (I Can Even Smell The Decay Through My Screen!)
St Paul’s Cathedral — Wikipedia
Long before 1858, the reality of what was to come was already becoming increasingly apparent when several dry seasons in previous decades dried most of the water out of the Thames; leaving the inhabitants of London exposed to the full disgusting glory of smelling literal crap.
People would vomit — sometimes fatally — and disease would break out during these seasons, killing many.
For instance, in 1831 6,536 people were reportedly killed in London as a result of the effects of having an entire river filled with generations of diarrhoea attacks all around your city.
Later years were to bring even more catastrophic results.
Another dry season between 1848–1849 reportedly killed another 14,137 Londoners.
Then, between 1853–1854, yet another 10,738 Londoners died during a subsequent disease breakout caused by a dry season exposing the waste.
Above: 160 Years Ago, The Thames River Was Not The “Cleanest” River In The World As The Link Below Claims, But A Disgusting, Dirty Brown!
the cleanest river in the world Sungai terbersih di dunia river thames | Horn Necklace
Forget the environmental effects this must have had on the poor fishies who had to endure this type of misery.
The human waste besieging London was reportedly so bad that anyone who could even afford sulphur, lime, and carbolic acid would pour it all around their house, including their curtains, in hopes of at least minimising the stench coming from the river.
Yes, things were already that stinky and disgusting, though it was actually about to get a lot worse by 1858.
During the nineteenth century, London had more or less been declared the “Capital of the World.”
This meant that hundreds of thousands of people moved within the city’s boundaries in hopes of sharing in the glory of being a part of this “Capital of the World” even if that meant living in one of the crappiest places on earth while enduring the wrath of the Great Stink.
Above: Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli Had To Flee His Foul-Smelling House And Abandon Parliament To The Stench Of The Disgusting Great Stink Of 1858
In June 1858, Queen Victoria and her husband Albert were apparently one of the first direct “victims” of the Great Stink of 1858 when they decided to take their boat onto the Thames as part of an afternoon romance.
At around this time, however, the water levels of the Thames had declined significantly enough that as they were bringing their boat out into the water, the stench, as well as physical contact of human and animal poo unleashed itself on the couple, whose unfortunate staff members were no doubting wish at around this time that they could have found a more worthwhile profession than this.
The couple — particularly Queen Victoria — were said to be so horrified at what they were experiencing firsthand that they ordered their boat to be instantly turned around and brought back to dock in haste.
Of course, while waiting for their opportunity to flee the disgusting Thames River, one can only imagine Queen Victoria acting like one of those stereotypical aristocratic British women who faint while the remains of people’s digestive systems splatters about her royal outfit.
Above: Queen Victoria On August 16, 1858 Sending The First Transatlantic Message — Possibly As A Forewarning To The Help One Would Need In Dealing With Their Disgusting Situation
June, however, was only the beginning of what was to prove to be two months of complete chaos within the city, as the disgusting situation continued to become even more revolting.
Benjamin Disraeli, who owned a house near the banks of the River Thame, moved out, as did hundreds of other politicians living in the area, when even the use of carbolic acid, lime and sulphur could no longer suffice.
Even without the dry season, the Thames had become so overwhelmed with disgusting human waste that it was now literally washing onto the beach.
Sometimes rainstorms would even cause the poo to start washing off into London’s downtown streets; forcing people to have to walk over this literal bundle of crap.
London may have been the “Capital of the World” at the time, and yet it was also the most disgusting capital imaginable.
Above: The London News Discussing The Severity Of Their Crappy/Disgusting Situation
The Purification of The Thames
Parliament itself was abandoned in the wake of the Great Stink by late June. Benjamin Disraeli himself reportedly ran inside the building just long enough to retrieve some vital documents, though he did this while literally blocking his nose with a thick coat in the vain hope of minimising the disgusting smell plaguing the city.
In effect, the Great Stink was so disgusting and foul, that the British Government literally dissolved itself!
Serious attempts were made to relocate the government to Oxford or St. Albans, where things were reportedly less stinky and disgusting than they were in putrefying London.
With the temperature sometimes rising to a blistering 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) and an average day still hovering at around 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) it is not hard to imagine that Londoners were forced to not only endure the humidity and sweat that the summer of 1858 brought them, but also the revolting consequences of generations of human negligence.
Above: A Picture Of The Thames In The 1850s — Notice That The Lack Of Poo Present In This Photograph Really Does A Disservice In Showing How Disgusting London Must Have Been At The Time
Photos of Houses of Parliament and Windsor Castle from 1850s revealed
I couldn’t even imagine a skunk wanting to live within 100 miles of this place, and yet as many as two-and-a-half million people were living within eyesight of the diarrhoea-riddled Thames during the year of the Great Stink.
Unlike the previous outbreaks mentioned above, we don’t even have any real estimates as to how many people died from diseases or other ill-effects caused by this disgusting episode in London’s history, and it is presumably because the survivors were too busy throwing up to be noticing any dead bodies around them.
Tens of thousands of Londoners — including the poor — quite literally fled the area in droves, never to return.
Those who stayed around became physically sickened as the subsequent months continued to take a toll on their bodies.
Above: Disgusting Illustration By PUNCH Magazine Showing A Disgusted Father Thames Confronting An Equally Disgusted London Citizen While Some Other Random Disgusted-Looking Dude Looks On
British magazing Punch reportedly had much fun at ridiculing the government for its inability to do anything about this disgusting issue while thousands of their municipal citizens were either fleeing in a state of panic or dropping dead from the scourge being inflicted upon them from the Thames River.
The Illustrated London News had this to say about the Great Stink while it was still ongoing at its zenith:
“We can colonise the remotest ends of the earth; we can conquer India; we can pay the interest of the most enormous debt ever contracted; we can spread our name, and our fame, and our fructifying wealth to every part of the world; but we cannot clean the River Thames.”
The Great Stink: That time when London was overwhelmed with sewage stench
Above: A Disgusting Depiction Of A Disgusted Michael Faraday Attempting To Block His Nose In Public In 1855 — Three Years BEFORE The Disgusting Situation Really Spiralled Out Of Control
Ridiculous History: The Great Stink of London
As one can tell, things were obviously not very pleasant during this period of time, especially if one was living in the “Capital of the World.”
Buckingham Palace itself was apparently not spared, as even the Royal Family reportedly fled to Windsor Castle, rather than to continue dealing with the disgusting smell which continued daunting the city.
The City Press also had something to say in regards to the Great Stink:
“Gentility of speech is at an end — it stinks, and whoso once inhales the stink can never forget it and can count himself lucky if he lives to remember it.”
The big stench that saved London
See?
Gross!
Disgusting!
Above: Even Death Himself Was Aghast With This Disgusting Good-For-Nothing Situation
A river full of poop made London great again
There is literally no other way to describe this cursed place which stunk so badly that people were literally dropping dead just from smelling it.
And yet, some brave individuals did the unthinkable.
Not only did they not run away from the Great Stink, they decided to confront this abomination in a war of attrition that would last the better part of a decade.
Joseph Bazalgette, a thirty-nine-year-old consultant engineer for London’s railway, was approached (presumably with noses and mouths still covered) and was begged by the afflicted residents to find a quick and speedy solution to their misfortunes.
Bazalgette agreed to help solve their disgusting situation by adding/renovating some of the following:
- Adding 1,800 kilometres of street sewer pipes with the intention of collecting more rainwater
- Lifting the sewage in Lambeth and Pimlico — city areas that were below the waterline — so that the waste would be better filtered
- Introducing quality-controlled Portland cement
Above: The Disgusting Project Now Underway With Bazelgette (Centre) Bravely Posing Mere Inches Above The River Of Faeces
Story of cities #14: London’s Great Stink heralds a wonder of the industrial world
Ultimately, it would take years, even decades, before significant improves visibly took place.
Nonetheless, improve it ultimately did; for when another subsequent outbreak took place in 1866, the city was able to tally a further 5,596 dead. One can assume that the politicians found the time to do this because their city was gradually ceasing to being one major toilet bowl.
Unfortunately, disaster struck on September 3, 1878 when the paddle steamship Princess Alice, which was transporting hundreds of people for a cruise on the comparably less disgusting Thames River from two decades ago, was struck by the much bigger ship Bywell Castle and literally cut in half.
Above: Depiction Of The Princess Alice Ship Disaster — Imagine How Scary It Must Have Been, Knowing One Stood A Great Chance Of Drowning In Their Own Poop, Instead Of Water
An estimated 650 people died, and many people at the time were convinced that many of the dead were the result of either being caught up in the newly installed sewer systems which had yet to be upgraded to modern standards, or that they may have suffocated upon swallowing the thick amounts of poo remnants still commonly floating about.
Sinking of SS Princess Alice — Wikipedia
Either way, it must have been harrowing, knowing that their undignified fate would ultimately have been every bit as disgusting as it was horrifying, for 75 million GALLONS of water-infested poo (released twice daily) was said to have been released from Abbey Mills — only a few hundred yards away from the collision — less than an hour earlier.
Above: Abbey Mills Sewage Pumping Station — Where All The Disgusting Bowel Remnants Were Released Into The Thames River
Abbey Mills Pumping Station — Wikipedia
Needless to say, many historians now believe that by adopting the sewer system of Joseph Bazalgette, whose budget went by over $100 million in modern inflation (the politicians were more than willing to increase taxes for its cost), the average life expectancy in London may have increased by more than two decades.
A modern historian named Peter Ackroyd, who studied the works of Bazalgette, even went so far as to state that Bazalgette should be bestowed a posthumous award as a Hero of London.
Above: Workers Enduring Their Crappy And Disgusting Jobs While Engineering The Thames
Note: They Were Probably Holding Their Breaths While Trying Not To Cover Their Noses For This Disgusting Picture; That’s My Logical Guess Anyway
Of course, thousands of Bazalgette’s now-nameless subordinates had to literally go into the Thames at a time when modern sanitisers were not yet available, and manually pick up what was left of some old faeces older than their great, great, great grandparents were likely to be.
Such people obviously should not be forgotten, as I am sure not only was this one of the crappiest and most disgusting jobs imaginable, even back then, it probably caused many of them to either die from health problems, or from feeling completely disgusted at the disgusting situation that they were being thrown in.
Needless to say, next time you, as a Londoner, or someone visiting London, wonder why you are no longer living in the crappiest and most disgusting city on the planet, you’ll have one name to thank:
Joseph Bazalgette
Above: Bazalgette As Seen Two Decades After His Disgusting Career First Started (Notice The Disgust Still Visible On His Face)
