97: The Great Stink of 1858

By the mid-1800’s, the River Thames was essentially a massive sewer. People poured their waste into it. They also drank from it. That combination resulted in thousands of deaths. People weren’t sure what caused the deaths, but in the summer of 1858, when the temperatures rose and the water levels dropped, London stunk to high heaven.

It took a lot of money, creativity, and an incredible act of civil engineering from Sir Joseph Bazalgette to fix the Great Stink.

Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from:

Ackroyd, Peter. London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012.

“Cesspools and Sewers: Toilets in Dirty Old London.” Yale University Press, November 19, 2014. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2014/11/19/cesspools-and-sewers-toilets-in-dirty-old-london/.

“Cholera in Victorian London | Science Museum.” https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/cholera-victorian-london.

Contagion - CURIOSity Digital Exhibits. “Cholera Epidemics in the 19th Century.” March 26, 2020. https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/contagion/feature/cholera-epidemics-in-the-19th-century.

Halliday, Stephen. The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis. The History Press, 2020.

Historic UK. “The Victorian Workhouse.” https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Victorian-Workhouse/.

“Joseph Bazalgette | The History of London.” December 21, 2024. https://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/joseph-bazalgette/.

“The Great Stink | The History of London.” January 20, 2025. https://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/the-great-stink/.

The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered, dir. History and Sewage: The Great Stink of 1858. 2018. 11:44. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD7nRrSH_VE.

“The Smithsonian and the 19th Century Guano Trade: This Poop Is Crap.” May 25, 2017. https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/smithsonian-and-19th-century-guano-trade-poop-crap.

Tulchinsky, Theodore H. “John Snow, Cholera, the Broad Street Pump; Waterborne Diseases Then and Now.” Case Studies in Public Health, 2018, 77–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-804571-8.00017-2.

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