The Great Stink: The Summer London Couldn't Breathe

In the hot summer of 1858, the River Thames was an open sewer, and London could no longer ignore the smell. Inside the new Houses of Parliament, members tried to keep working behind curtains soaked in chemicals, and some fled the building altogether.

Most people believed bad air itself spread disease. They were wrong about why, but the stench finally pushed Parliament to act. This episode follows the summer of the Great Stink and the engineer Joseph Bazalgette, whose vast network of sewers still serves the city today. We also sort the record from the legend, including what the smell did and did not do to Londoners' health.

Created with the assistance of AI, using an AI model of the host's voice, and checked against the historical record.