Dramatic landscape artist John Martin had already drawn up detailed plans in the 1820s to resolve the problem of London’s polluted Thames. A friend of the scientist Michael Faraday, Martin was a highly successful landscapist who was as interested in the growing fields of science and technology as he was in art.
How did Joseph Bazalgette solve the great stink?
By embanking large sections of the River Thames in central London, Bazalgette’s scheme not only concealed new sewers, but also created flood defences for the capital. Here the wall of Chelsea Embankment, west of Albert Bridge, is virtually complete.
Why was the Great Stink such a problem?
The disease was deeply feared by all, because of the speed with which it could spread, and its high fatality rates. London’s first major cholera epidemic struck in 1831 when the disease claimed 6,536 victims.
What happened to the big stink?
In June 1959 it was moved into storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, and was dropped from the U.S. Air Force inventory in February 1960 as salvage.
How did the great stink improve public health?
As a result of the Great Stink, the government invested in the construction of a new sewerage system for London. This was designed by Joseph Bazalgette. The new system was designed in 1858 and completed in 1875. The system was built in response to the Great Stink.
What did Joseph Bazalgette do?
Sir Joseph William Bazalgette was a civil engineer in the 19th century who built London’s first sewer network (still in use today), which helped to wipe out cholera in the capital. He also designed the Albert, Victoria and Chelsea embankments, which housed the sewers, in central London.
What was the result of the great stink?
The result was a smell as offensive and disgusting as can ever be imagined. It spawned accounts such as the following: there were “stories flying of men struck down with the stench, and of all kinds of fatal diseases, up-springing on the river’s banks.”
What did Victorians smell like?
By the middle of the Victorian era, bergamot and lemon oil had surpassed Eau de Cologne to become the most popular fragrance for women. According to Goodman: “Bergamot and lemon oil, sometimes employed separately but more often used in combination, was the signature smell of the middle years of the century.
How did the River Thames get cleaned?
It was decided that ‘Treatment plants‘ should be built to clean the water from the Thames before it was pumped to homes. The treatment plants also cleaned dirty water from homes before it went back into the Thames. Not only did the people’s health improve but also the water in the Thames became cleaner.
Is the Thames still polluted?
But while the river may now be one of the cleanest city rivers in the world, a new environmental epidemic is taking hold; plastic pollution. The problem derives mainly from the more unsuspecting plastics.
How did England clean the Thames?
Then, in 1960, plans to clean up the Thames river was established again, such as improving waste treatment facilities, removing industrial waste, adding oxygen into the river using technology called bubble boats, and even the use of biodegradable detergent.
Why does the Thames look so dirty?
The River Thames appears brown because there is silt on the riverbed. This silt is made up of fine particles which disperse in the water and make it look muddy.
When did London get sewage?
Although the system was officially opened by Edward, Prince of Wales in 1865 (and several of the largest sewer channels named after members of the Royal Family), the whole project was not completed until 1875.
Who cleaned the Thames?
Joseph Bazalgette’s sewage design was easily one of the most incredible engineering feats of the nineteenth century. Work began on the system in 1859, and took twenty years to complete. The last epidemic of cholera took place in 1866 in the East End of London, a section not yet connected to Bazalgette’s system.
Where does the sewage in London go?
Many sewers north of the Thames feed into the Northern Outfall Sewer, which transports sewage to Beckton Sewage Treatment Works. South of the river, the Southern Outfall Sewer extends to a similar facility at Crossness.
How did The Great Stink change people’s understanding of disease?
In 1866, one final cholera epidemic struck London, but it was limited to a neighborhood that had not yet been connected to the new sewer system. This helped people begin to realize that polluted water, not miasma, was the source of cholera and other diseases.
How long did it take Joseph Bazalgette to build the sewers?
Over the next 16 years, Bazalgette constructs 82 miles (132km) of main intercepting sewers, 1100 miles of street sewers, four pumping stations and two treatment works.
Who invented the first sewage system?
Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamians introduced the world to clay sewer pipes around 4000 BCE, with the earliest examples found in the Temple of Bel at Nippur and at Eshnunna, utilised to remove wastewater from sites, and capture rainwater, in wells.
When did Joseph Bazalgette finish the sewers?
Sadly, delays to allow the embankments to also house new Underground lines meant that a final cholera epidemic hit London in 1866. The sewers were completed around 1870, with two extra sewers added about 1910.
Can you swim in River Thames?
The tidal Thames is a fast-flowing waterway and the busiest inland waterway in the UK accommodating over 20,000 ship movements and hosting over 400 events each year. It is for these reasons the PLA restricts swimming throughout the majority of its jurisdiction for the safety of swimmers and river users.
How dirty was London in the 19th century?
In the 19th century, London was the capital of the largest empire the world had ever known — and it was infamously filthy. It had choking, sooty fogs; the Thames River was thick with human sewage; and the streets were covered with mud.