The Great Stink of 1858: When London's Sewage Nearly Broke the Government

In the summer of 1858, London became so unbearably foul-smelling that members of Parliament considered abandoning the city entirely. The Thames River had become an open sewer carrying the waste of over 2 million people, and a brutal heatwave turned it into a steaming cesspool of human excrement. The stench was so overpowering that Parliament soaked their curtains in lime chloride and hung sheets soaked in disinfectant over windows just so politicians could breathe while debating. Even Queen Victoria cancelled a pleasure cruise because the smell made her violently ill.

For decades, London had been dumping raw sewage directly into the Thames - the same river people drew drinking water from. Cesspits overflowed into streets. "Night soil men" collected human waste f ...