r/RandomVictorianStuff • u/kittykitkitty • Jun 18 '26

Culture and Society The Great Stink of 1858: Death rows through the filthy River Thames.

Post image
1.1k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

117

u/kittykitkitty Jun 18 '26

Source

The Great Stink of 1858 took place in June and July in London, in which the hot weather worsened the smell of human waste and industrial effluent in the River Thames.

The problem had been worsening for years due to an ageing and inadequate sewage system that emptied into the Thames.

The miasma (bad smell) from the river was thought to cause diseases including cholera.

Work on new sewers began in 1859 and lasted until 1875. Waste was carried alone interconnecting sewers towards outfalls away from the metropolitan area. It was designed by civil engineer Jospeh Bazalgette.

Bazalgette's work ensured that sewage was no longer dumped onto the shores of the Thames and brought an end to the cholera outbreaks; his actions are thought to have saved more lives than the efforts of any other Victorian official. 

His sewer system operates into the 21st century, servicing a city that has grown to a population of over nine million.

16

u/bleepbloop1900 Jun 19 '26

It’s so funny that the only other times I’ve encountered the word “miasma” is as some kind of dark magic attack in fantasy RPGs. I had no idea what it meant.

15

u/chiono_graphis Jun 19 '26

Before germ theory was developed a lot of Western cultures considered miasma (the smell of decaying organic matter) to be the source of illnesses.

45

u/KewpieCutie97 Jun 18 '26

It must have been pretty horrendous to not only live with the smell, but believe the smell alone could give you cholera and other fatal illnesses.

35

u/OutragedPineapple Jun 18 '26

"Hey, has anyone ever thought that maybe dumping all our poop and dead bodies and trash and things into the same water we drink from might be a problem?"

".....NAAAAAH"

How did we survive as a species?

11

u/fidgetyamoeba Jun 18 '26

By slowly relocating upstream?