The Great Stink of London : Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis

In the sweltering summer of 1858 the stink of sewage from the polluted Thames was so offensive that it drove Members of Parliament from the chamber of the House of Commons. Sewage from over 2 million Londoners was pouring into the river, carried by the tides. The Times called the crisis "The Great Stink". Parliament had to act - drastic measures were required to improve London's primitive system of sanitation. The great engineer entrusted with this task was Sir Joseph Bazalgette, his response to conceive and build the system of intercepting sewers, pumping stations and treatment works that serves London to this day. In the process he cleansed the Thames and helped banish cholera, but this was only one of his great achievements. This enthralling history gives a vivid insight into Bazalgette's achievements and the era in which he worked and lived, including his heroic battles with politicians and bureaucrats, to transform the face and health of the world's largest city. It is a trait of human memory to forget, to take things for granted: especially those things pertaining to the "truth of the pipes", the infrastructure of reality, of the comforts of day-to-day existence. Joseph Bazalgette turned this melancholy aspect of human nature into a virtue of engineering: for him, an engineer should make things so well that the user may forget about their workings, about even the fact that they are there. Good engineering is synonymous to routine: after all, what good is a pipeline which breaks every other month? Or a space rocket which works 'most of the time'? Succinctly, good engineering is genuine freedom from material constraint. Anthropologists propose many definitions of 'civilization', most of them confusing it with any hodge-podge collection of human-made artifacts. From such a perspective, no difference can be made between pyramids, megalomanic expressions of political hubris and puerile transcendentalism, and those artifacts which seamlessly integrate into the human existence, projecting it to a different qualitative level, rendering it more... humane: such as the humble-but-well-made sewer... Bazalgette's take on engineering deontology allows, once and for all, a definite criteria for distinguishing what is genuine civilization from what is just a pointless burst of thymos. Thus, Joseph Bazalgette's implicit understanding of civilization complements that of Thomas Paine, who saw it not as **any** social order, but **a** social order built around the imperative of individual liberty. Together, freedom from material constraint and political liberty, are the great gifts of the British ethos of life to the world. Too bad that the faculty of forgetting and taking things for granted extends also to these two principles, cornerstones for passing through this world in dignity... [CSD & A. M. Arsian] *** In the sweltering summer of 1858 the stink of sewage from the polluted Thames was so offensive that it drove Members of Parliament from the chamber of the House of Commons. Sewage generated by a population of over two million Londoners was pouring into the river and was being carried to and fro by the tides. The Times called the crisis "The Great Stink". Parliament had to act - drastic measures were required to clean the Thames and to improve London's primitive system of sanitation. The great engineer entrusted by Parliament with this enormous task was Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and this book is a fascinating account of his life and work. [The History Press, GoodReads] "In the sweltering summer of 1858 the stink of sewage from the polluted Thames was so offensive that it drove Members of Parliament from the chamber of the House of Commons. Sewage generated by a population of over two million Londoners was pouring into the river and was being carried to and fro by the tides. The Times called the crisis 'The Great Stink'. Parliament had to act -- drastic measures were required to clean the Thames and to improve London's primitive system of sanitation. The great engineer entrusted by Parliament with this enormous task was Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and this book is a fascinating account of his life and work." "Bazalgette's response to the challenge was to conceive and build the system of intercepting sewers, pumping stations and treatment works that serves London to this day. In the process he cleansed the River Thames of the capital's sewage and helped to banish cholera, which in the mid-nineteenth century carried off over 40,000 Londoners." "But this successful scheme was only one element in Bazalgette's wider contribution to the development of the Victorian capital. He also reclaimed land from the Thames to construct the Victoria, Albert and Chelsea Embankments, built bridges across the Thames at Putney, Battersea and Hammersmith, and created many notable new thoroughfares including Charing Cross Road, Northumberland Avenue and Shaftesbury Avenue." "Stephen Halliday's enthralling social and personal history gives a vivid insight into Bazalgette's achievements and the era in which he worked and lived. The author traces the origins of Bazalgette's family in revolutionary France, the confusing sanitation system that he inherited from medieval and Tudor times and his heroic battle with politicians, bureaucrats and huge engineering problems to transform the face and health of the world's largest city. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET 'An extraordinary history' PETER ACKROYD, The Times 'A lively account of (Bazalgette's) magnificent achievements. . . graphically illustrated' HERMIONE HOBHOUSE 'Halliday is good on sanitary engineering and even better on cloaca, crud and putrefaction . . . (he) writes with the relish of one who savours his subject and has deeply researched it. . . splendidly illustrated' RUTH RENDELL In the sweltering summer of 1858, sewage generated by over two million Londoners was pouring into the Thames, producing a stink so offensive that it drove Members of Parliament from the chamber of the House of Commons. The Times called the crisis 'The Great Stink'. Parliament had to act – drastic measures were required to clean the Thames and to improve London's primitive system of sanitation. The great engineer entrusted with this enormous task was Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who rose to the challenge and built the system of intercepting sewers, pumping stations and treatment works that serves London to this day. In the process, he cleansed the Thames and helped banish cholera. The Great Stink of London offers a vivid insight into Bazalgette's achievements and the era in which he worked and lived, including his heroic battles with politicians and bureaucrats that would transform the face and health of the world's then largest city. In the sweltering summer of 1858 the stink of sewage from the polluted river Thames was extremely offensive. Engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette was chosen to change the city's outdated sanitation system. This text examines his great achievement A vivid account of the life and work of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the engineer who designed and built the system of intercepting sewers, pumping stations and treatment works that cleaned up Victorian London. An account of the life and work of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the engineer who designed and built the system of intercepting sewers, pumping stations and treatment works that cleaned up Victorian London