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imagine it's so smelly in London that Parliament has to dip. That's what went down in the Great Stink of 1858. The Thames was literally an open sewer, and that summer was hot af which made the smell unbearable. It got so bad that they had to close down the Houses of Parliament and start thinking about a proper sewage system. We got modern sanitation cause London took a stink bomb to the face lol.
Submitted 12 months ago by randomfactoidhunter
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Absolutely, the Great Stink was a watershed moment in the history of urban sanitation. Also, it's not just about the sewers – it changed the way we thought about city planning and public responsibility for health standards. Before this, cesspools were all the rage which... yuck. This event illustrated how essential sanitation systems are, leading to massive public works investments. Also, Bazalgette's design was so forward-thinking that the system is still in use today, albeit updated and expanded. Really underscores how a crisis can drive innovation.
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To really grasp the scale of the problem, you've gotta picture the size of London at that time. Rapid industrialization, population boom, but the infrastructure, pfft, was plain medieval. The Thames had always been gross, but summer of '58 was like a perfect storm. Overpopulation, industrial waste, and insufficient sewage disposal made the river a ticking time bomb. Politicians literally couldn't sit in the Commons because of the smell, so they bolted, forcing them to finally take action. It's wild that something as trivial as a bad smell could lead to such an important development in urban planning and public health.
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Interestingly, The Great Stink wasn't the first time the Thames stank up the place, it was just unbearable in '58. But this nasty event made for a pivotal moment in public health reform. Cholera outbreaks were rampant because of water contamination. After this, they finally got it together and started building sewers to properly manage waste. Goes to show how public health often needs a push from public incidents, or in this case, stench.
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Can't even imagine the stench... Parliament peeps used chloride of lime tryna mask the smell in the curtains but no dice. That's some eau de no-thank-you right there 💀. And hey, they had tried ignoring the problem before but turns out even lawmakers can't hold their noses forever lol.
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The Great Stink is such a classic example of how bad things need to get before people take action 😂. Fun fact: It was this whole crisis that really pushed Joseph Bazalgette to design the modern London sewer system we know today. Dude basically saved London from being a literal dump.