The Great Stink In The 1930's

In the hot summer days of 1858, London was collapsing. The government could barely function, and everything was out of control. What worsens the situation was the overwhelming foul smell surrounding the town, coming from River Thames. Everyone would dump human, animal, and industrial waste in the river. The flush toilet had been invented, but the sewerage system hadn’t which meant all the waste got flushed straight into the river. The result was a strong, rotten smell, a fatal disease like cholera, and thousands losing lives due to the Great Stink. For years, England’s most beloved river played the role of dumping all types of unwanted trash. A deadly cocktail of slaughterhouse waste, human feces, and industrial chemicals was
In 1846, Parliament passed the Cholera Bill also known as The Nuisances Removal and Disease Prevention Act. The reason this was passed was to tell people to clean their homes and connect them to sewers. Popular among the middle class was the flushing toilet, which made things worse. Rather than creating a sweet, smelling city, it caused the Great Stink. By the summer of 1858, The Great Stink had become unbearable. The temperature was as high as 105degrees. Due to the extreme hotness, London was experiencing a heatwave. As the water level dropped, layers of waste had been cooking on the shore under the hot sun. The result was an unimaginable horrible
About 40,000 people died from cholera in London alone. Victorians had no cure for cholera and didn’t have a clue of how it spread. Between 1831 through 1866. The popular theory amongst half of the population was that the illness was caused by “miasma”. This made people not get near the toxic river, but it didn’t stop them from drinking or using the contaminated water. Even after proven cholera was a product of contaminated water, Florence Nightingale, a nurse, was a firm believer of miasma theory until her death. Joseph W. Bazalgette was the man who probably saved more lives than any Victorian official. “Bazalgette’s two great titles to fame are that he beautified London and drained it “—The Illustrated London