122-651: The Great Stink was an event in Central London during July and August 1858 in which the hot weather exacerbated the smell of untreated human waste and industrial effluent that was present on the banks of the River Thames . The problem had been mounting for some years, with an ageing and inadequate sewer system that emptied directly into the Thames. The miasma from the effluent was thought to transmit contagious diseases, and three outbreaks of cholera before
244-545: A Romanesque style and the interior contains architectural cast ironwork which English Heritage describe as important. The power for pumping the large amount of sewage was provided by four massive beam engines , named Victoria, Prince Consort, Albert Edward and Alexandra, which were manufactured by James Watt and Co. The station was opened in April 1865 by the Prince of Wales —the future King Edward VII —who officially started
366-610: A 2001 population of 1,525,000. The sub-region was replaced in 2008 with a new structure which amalgamated inner and outer boroughs together. This was altered in 2011 when a new Central London sub-region was created, now including the City of London and excluding Wandsworth. The 1901 Census defined Central London as the City of London and the metropolitan boroughs (subdivisions that existed from 1900 to 1965) of Bermondsey , Bethnal Green , Finsbury , Holborn , Shoreditch , Southwark , Stepney , St Marylebone and Westminster . During
488-692: A central octagonal lantern that adds a gracious Russian flavour". To provide the drainage for the low-level sewers, in February 1864 Bazalgette began building three embankments along the shores of the Thames. On the northern side he built the Victoria Embankment , which runs from Westminster to Blackfriars Bridge , and the Chelsea Embankment , running from Millbank to the Cadogan Pier at Chelsea. The southern side contains
610-433: A cholera epidemic on Broad Street in central London in 1854. Because of the miasmatic theory's predominance among Italian scientists, the discovery in the same year by Filippo Pacini of the bacillus that caused the disease was completely ignored. It was not until 1876 that Robert Koch proved that the bacterium Bacillus anthracis caused anthrax , which brought a definitive end to miasma theory. The work of John Snow
732-540: A high-density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally, nationally and internationally significant organisations and facilities. Road distances to London are traditionally measured from a central point at Charing Cross (in the City of Westminster ), which is marked by the statue of King Charles I at the junction of the Strand , Whitehall and Cockspur Street , just south of Trafalgar Square . The central area
854-480: A hygienic manner, is known as ecological sanitation , and is promoted as a way of "closing the loop". Throughout the 19th century, concern about public health and sanitation, along with the influence of the miasma theory, were reasons for the advocacy of the then-controversial practice of cremation . If infectious diseases were spread by noxious gases emitted from decaying organic matter, that included decaying corpses. The public health argument for cremation faded with
976-639: A labourers' strike in 1859–60, hard frosts in winter, and heavier than normal rainfall. The rain was so heavy in June 1862 that an accident occurred at the works re-building the Fleet sewer. The deep excavations were running parallel to the excavation of a cutting at Clerkenwell for the Metropolitan Railway (now the Metropolitan line ), and the 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 -foot (2.6 m) wall dividing
1098-590: A local magistrate from the Southern Song dynasty , described in his treatise Representative Answers from the South : "... The men are short and tan, while the women were plump and seldom came down with illness," and exclaimed at the populous female population in the Guangxi region. This inherent environmental threat also prevented immigration from other regions. Hence, development in the damp and sultry south
1220-524: A main sewer servicing each; a series of pumping stations was planned to remove the waste towards the east of the city. Bazalgette's plan was based on that of Foster, but was larger in scale, and allowed for more of a rise in population than Foster's – from 3 to 4.5 million. Bazalgette submitted his plans to Sir Benjamin Hall , the First Commissioner of Works . Hall had reservations about
1342-625: A mass of papers in one hand, and with his pocket handkerchief applied to his nose" because the smell was so bad. The disruption to its legislative work led to questions being raised in the House of Commons. According to Hansard , the Member of Parliament (MP) John Brady informed Manners that members were unable to use either the Committee Rooms or the Library because of the stench, and asked
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#17327725367151464-440: A mile ( 800 m) downriver from their reservoir: the sewage was being carried upriver into the reservoir on the incoming tide, contaminating the area's drinking water. The outbreak and the diagnosis of its causes led to the acceptance that cholera was water-borne, not transmitted by miasma. The Lancet , relating details of the investigation into the incident by Dr William Farr , stated that his report "will render irresistible
1586-499: A most head-and-stomach-distending nature", while the social scientist and journalist George Godwin wrote that "in parts the deposit is more than six feet deep" on the Thames foreshore, and that "the whole of this is thickly impregnated with impure matter". In June 1858 the temperatures in the shade in London averaged 34–36 °C (93–97 °F)—rising to 48 °C (118 °F) in the sun. Combined with an extended spell of dry weather,
1708-451: A policy that resulted in more sewage being discharged into the Thames. In August 1849 the MCS appointed Joseph Bazalgette to the position of assistant surveyor. He had been working as a consultant engineer in the railway industry until overwork had brought about a serious breakdown in his health; his appointment to the commission was his first position on his return to employment. Working under
1830-541: A pumping station lifted the effluent 21 feet (6.4 m) into the main outflow sewer, which ran to the Crossness Pumping Station on the Erith Marshes , where it was discharged into the Thames at high tide. The newly built station at Crossness was designed by Bazalgette and a consultant engineer, Charles Driver , a proponent of the use of cast iron as a building material. The building was in
1952-520: A result, the government became concerned about the severe cases and the causes of miasma by sending doctors to the areas of epidemic to research the disease and heal the patients. In the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty , versions of local chronicles record different miasma in different places. However, Southern China was highly developed in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The environment changed rapidly, and after
2074-456: Is a firm indication of the depth of public interest and approval that appears to have characterised the work." The northern side of the Thames was the more populous, housing two-thirds of London's population, and the works had to proceed through congested streets and overcome such urban hurdles as canals, bridges and railway lines. Work began on the system on 31 January 1859, but the builders encountered numerous problems in construction, including
2196-412: Is at an end—it stinks, and whoso once inhales the stink can never forget it and can count himself lucky if he lives to remember it". A writer for The Standard concurred with the opinion. One of its reporters described the river as a "pestiferous and typhus breeding abomination", while a second wrote that "the amount of poisonous gases which is thrown off is proportionate to the increase of the sewage which
2318-790: Is distinguished, according to the Royal Commission , by the inclusion within its boundaries of Parliament and the Royal Palaces, the headquarters of Government, the Law Courts , the head offices of a very large number of commercial and industrial firms, as well as institutions of great influence in the intellectual life of the nation such as the British Museum , the National Gallery , the Tate Gallery ,
2440-492: Is notable for helping to make the connection between cholera and typhoid epidemics and contaminated water sources, which contributed to the eventual demise of miasma theory. During the cholera epidemic of 1854 , Snow traced high mortality rates among the citizens of Soho to a water pump in Broad Street . Snow convinced the local government to remove the pump handle, which resulted in a marked decrease in cases of cholera in
2562-648: Is passed into the stream". The leading article in The Illustrated London News commented that: We can colonise the remotest ends of the earth; we can conquer India; we can pay the interest of the most enormous debt ever contracted; we can spread our name, and our fame, and our fructifying wealth to every part of the world; but we cannot clean the River Thames. By June the stench from the river had become so bad that business in Parliament
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#17327725367152684-614: The Albert Embankment , from the Lambeth end of Westminster Bridge to Vauxhall . He ran the sewers along the banks of the Thames, building up walls on the foreshore, running the sewer pipes inside and infilling around them. The works claimed over 52 acres (21 ha) of land from the Thames; the Victoria Embankment had the added benefit of relieving the congestion on the pre-existing roads between Westminster and
2806-688: The City of London . The cost of building the embankments was estimated at £1.71 million, of which £450,000 was used for purchasing the necessary river-front properties, which tended to be for light industrial use. The Embankment project was seen as being nationally important and, with the Queen unable to attend because of illness, the Victoria Embankment was opened by the Prince of Wales in July 1870. The Albert Embankment had been completed in November 1869, while
2928-769: The Herbert Commission and the subsequent passage of the London Government Bill , three unsuccessful attempts were made to define an area that would form a central London borough . The first two were detailed in the 1959 Memorandum of Evidence of the Greater London Group of the London School of Economics . "Scheme A" envisaged a central London borough, one of 25, consisting of the City of London, Westminster, Holborn, Finsbury and
3050-486: The London Statistical Society which showed dramatic increases in both morbidity and mortality rates since the beginning of urbanization in the early 19th century. Though Chadwick proposed reform on the basis of the miasma theory, his proposals did contribute to improvements in sanitation , such as preventing the reflux of noxious air from sewers back into houses by using separate drainage systems in
3172-632: The Royal Engineers , James Simpson , an engineer with two water companies, and Thomas Blackwood, the chief engineer on the Kennet and Avon Canal . The trio reported back to Hall in July 1857 with proposed changes to the positions of the outfall, which he passed on to the MBW in October. The new proposed discharge points were to be open sewers, running 15 miles (24 km) beyond the positions proposed by
3294-732: The Tang dynasty , for example, wrote to his nephew who came to see him off after his banishment to the Chao Prefecture in his poem, En Route ( 左遷至藍關示姪孫湘 ): At dawn I sent a single warning to the throne of the Nine Steps; At evening I was banished to Chao Yang, eight thousand leagues. Striving on behalf of a noble dynasty to expel an ignoble government, How should I, withered and worn, deplore my future lot? The clouds gather on Ch'in Mountains, I cannot see my home; The snow bars
3416-528: The University of London , the headquarters of the national ballet and opera, together with the headquarters of many national associations, the great professions, the trade unions, the trade associations, social service societies, as well as shopping centres and centres of entertainment which attract people from the whole of Greater London and farther afield. In many other respects the central area differs from areas farther out in London. The rateable value of
3538-462: The germ theory of disease : specific germs, not miasma, caused specific diseases. However, cultural beliefs about getting rid of odor made the clean-up of waste a high priority for cities. It also encouraged the construction of well-ventilated hospital facilities, schools and other buildings. The word miasma comes from ancient Greek and though conceptually, there is no word in English that has
3660-466: The miasmic theory ) is an abandoned medical theory that held that diseases —such as cholera , chlamydia , or the Black Death —were caused by a miasma ( μίασμα , Ancient Greek for 'pollution'), a noxious form of "bad air", also known as night air . The theory held that epidemics were caused by miasma, emanating from rotting organic matter. Though miasma theory is typically associated with
3782-467: The third cholera outbreak in 1854 , Snow published an update to his treatise, after he focused on the effects in Broad Street, Soho. Snow had removed the handle from the local water pump, thus preventing access to the contaminated water, with a resulting fall in deaths. It was later established that a leaking sewer ran near the well from which the water was drawn. The civic infrastructure overseeing
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3904-429: The 1961 census. It consisted of the City of London, all of Westminster, Holborn and Finsbury; and the inner parts of Shoreditch, Stepney, Bermondsey, Southwark, Lambeth, Chelsea, Kensington, Paddington, St Marylebone and St Pancras. The population was estimated to be 270,000. 51°30′N 0°08′W / 51.50°N 0.13°W / 51.50; -0.13 Miasma theory The miasma theory (also called
4026-540: The 19th century, western science and medical knowledge were introduced into China, and people knew how to distinguish and deal with the disease. The concept of miasma therefore faded out due to the progress of medicine in China. The terrifying miasma diseases in the southern regions of China made it the primary location for relegating officials and sending criminals to exile since the Qin-Han dynasty. Poet Han Yu ( 韓愈 ) of
4148-469: The 1st century BC, the Roman architectural writer Vitruvius described the potential effects of miasma ( Latin nebula ) from fetid swamplands when visiting a city: For when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring with them mist from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous breath of creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of the inhabitants, they will make
4270-589: The Chelsea Embankment was opened in July 1874. Bazalgette considered the Embankment project "one of the most difficult and intricate things the ... [MBW] have had to do", and shortly after the Chelsea Embankment was opened, he was knighted . In 1875 the work on the western drainage was completed, and the system became operational. The building work had required 318 million bricks and 880,000 cubic yards (670,000 m) of concrete and mortar;
4392-500: The City of London, most of Westminster and the inner parts of Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lambeth, Kensington & Chelsea and Wandsworth. It is described as "a unique cluster of vitally important activities including central government offices, headquarters and embassies, the largest concentration of London's financial and business services sector and the offices of trade, professional bodies, institutions, associations, communications, publishing, advertising and
4514-480: The City of London, the whole of Finsbury and Holborn, most of Westminster and Southwark, parts of St Pancras, St Marylebone, Paddington and a small part of Kensington. The area had an estimated population of 400,000 and occupied 8,000 acres (32 km ). During the passage of the London Government Bill an amendment was put forward to create a central borough corresponding to the definition used at
4636-722: The Crossness Engines Trust. The president of the trust is the British television producer Peter Bazalgette , the great-great-grandson of Joseph. As at 2015 part of the Abbey Mill facility continues to operate as a sewage pumping station. The building's large double chimneys were removed during the Second World War following fears that they could be used by the Luftwaffe as landmarks for navigation, and
4758-487: The Great Stink were blamed on the ongoing problems with the river. The smell, and fears of its possible effects, prompted action from the national and local administrators who had been considering possible solutions for the problem. The authorities accepted a proposal from the civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette to move the effluent eastwards along a series of interconnecting sewers that sloped towards outfalls beyond
4880-495: The House of Commons and Chancellor of the Exchequer . By mid-1858 the problems with the Thames had been building for several years. In his novel Little Dorrit —published as a serial between 1855 and 1857— Charles Dickens wrote that the Thames was "a deadly sewer ... in the place of a fine, fresh river". In a letter to a friend, Dickens said: "I can certify that the offensive smells, even in that short whiff, have been of
5002-479: The Labouring Classes' (1860) that Nightingale would "keep the air [the patient] breathes as pure as the external air." Fear of miasma registered in many early nineteenth-century warnings concerning what was termed "unhealthy fog". The presence of fog was thought to strongly indicate the presence of miasma. The miasmas were thought to behave like smoke or mist, blown with air currents, wafted by winds. It
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5124-696: The MBW until 1889, during which time he replaced three of London's bridges: Putney in 1886, Hammersmith in 1887 and Battersea in 1890. He was appointed president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in 1884, and in 1901 a monument commemorating his life was opened on the Victoria Embankment. When he died in March 1891, his obituarist in The Illustrated London News wrote that Bazalgette's "two great titles to fame are that he beautified London and drained it", while Sir John Coode ,
5246-415: The MBW, an MP named Miller, proposed a bonus for Bazalgette. The board agreed and were prepared to pay the engineer £6,000—three times his annual salary—with an additional £4,000 to be shared among his three assistants. Although the idea was subsequently dropped following criticism, Halliday observes that the large amounts discussed "at a time when parsimony was the dominant characteristic of public expenditure
5368-624: The Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act was passed to identify whether the transmission of cholera was by air or by water. The act was used to encourage owners to clean their dwellings and connect them to sewers. Even though eventually disproved by the understanding of bacteria and the discovery of viruses , the miasma theory helped establish the connection between poor sanitation and disease. That encouraged cleanliness and spurred public health reforms which, in Britain, led to
5490-814: The Public Health Acts of 1848 and 1858, and the Local Government Act of 1858. The latter of those enabled the instituting of investigations into the health and sanitary regulations of any town or place, upon the petition of residents or as a result of death rates exceeding the norm. Early medical and sanitary engineering reformers included Henry Austin, Joseph Bazalgette , Edwin Chadwick , Frank Forster, Thomas Hawksley , William Haywood , Henry Letheby , Robert Rawlinson , John Simon , John Snow and Thomas Wicksteed . Their efforts, and associated British regulatory improvements, were reported in
5612-543: The Thames on the MBW, and stated that "as far as may be possible" the sewerage outlets should not be within the boundaries of London; it also allowed the Board to borrow £3 million, which was to be repaid from a three-penny levy on all London households for the next forty years. The terms favoured Bazalgette's original 1856 plan, and overcame Hall's objection to it. The leading article in The Times observed that "Parliament
5734-498: The United States as early as 1865. Particularly notable in 19th century sanitation reform is the work of Joseph Bazalgette, chief engineer to London's Metropolitan Board of Works . Encouraged by the Great Stink, Parliament sanctioned Bazalgette to design and construct a comprehensive system of sewers, which intercepted London's sewage and diverted it away from its water supply. The system helped purify London's water and saved
5856-636: The Western Jin dynasty , the concept of miasma was gradually forming; at least, in the Eastern Han dynasty , there was no description of miasma. During the Eastern Jin, large numbers of northern people moved south, and miasma was then recognized by men of letters and nobility. After the Sui and the Tang dynasty , scholars-bureaucrats sent to be the local officials recorded and investigated miasma. As
5978-403: The adoption of a suitable approach to the reuse of excreta in agriculture. It was a major factor in the practice of collecting human excreta from urban settlements and reusing them in the surrounding farmland. That type of resource recovery scheme was common in major cities in the 19th century before the introduction of sewer-based sanitation systems. Nowadays, the reuse of excreta, when done in
6100-417: The agent spreading malaria was the mosquito (active at night) rather than miasmata. Prior to the late 19th century, night air was considered dangerous in most Western cultures. Throughout the 19th century, the medical community was divided on the explanation for disease proliferation. On one side were the contagionists, believing disease was passed through physical contact, while others believed disease
6222-452: The aid of gravity, out towards the eastern outfalls at a gradient of 2 feet per mile (38 cm/km). Bazalgette was a proponent of the use of Portland cement , a material stronger than standard cement, but with a weakness when over-heated. To overcome the problem he instituted a quality control system to test batches of cement, that is described by the historian Stephen Halliday as both "elaborate" and "draconian". The results were fed back to
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#17327725367156344-467: The air, is at once to increase the real danger, from exposure to noxious effluvia, and to divert attention from the true means of remedy and prevention. Florence Nightingale : The idea of "contagion", as explaining the spread of disease, appears to have been adopted at a time when, from the neglect of sanitary arrangements, epidemics attacked whole masses of people, and when men had ceased to consider that nature had any laws for her guidance. Beginning with
6466-439: The already failing system. Much of this outflow either overflowed, or discharged directly, into the Thames. The scientist Michael Faraday described the situation in a letter to The Times in July 1855: shocked at the state of the Thames, he dropped pieces of white paper into the river to "test the degree of opacity ". His conclusion was that "Near the bridges the feculence rolled up in clouds so dense that they were visible at
6588-545: The area. In 1857, Snow submitted a paper to the British Medical Journal which attributed high numbers of cholera cases to water sources that were contaminated with human waste. Snow used statistical data to show that citizens who received their water from upstream sources were considerably less likely to develop cholera than those who received their water from downstream sources. Though his research supported his hypothesis that contaminated water, not foul air,
6710-465: The board; the cost of their plans was to be over £5.4 million, considerably more than the maximum estimate of Bazalgette's plan, which was £2.4 million. In February 1858 a general election saw the fall of Lord Palmerston 's Whig government , which was replaced by Lord Derby 's second Conservative ministry ; Lord John Manners replaced Hall, and Benjamin Disraeli was appointed Leader of
6832-425: The body and items. Dr. William Farr , the assistant commissioner for the 1851 London census, was an important supporter of the miasma theory. He believed that cholera was transmitted by air, and that there was a deadly concentration of miasmata near the River Thames ' banks. Such a belief was in part accepted because of the general lack of air quality in urbanized areas. The wide acceptance of miasma theory during
6954-455: The building became a grade II* listed building with the Ministry of Works in November 1974. The provision of an integrated and fully functioning sewer system for the capital, together with the associated drop in cholera cases, led the historian John Doxat to state that Bazalgette "probably did more good, and saved more lives, than any single Victorian official". Bazalgette continued to work at
7076-434: The capital's sanitation facilities. The Building Act 1844 had ensured that all new buildings had to be connected to a sewer, not a cesspool, and the commission set about connecting cesspools to sewers, or removing them altogether. Because of the fear that the miasma from the sewers would cause the spread of disease, Chadwick and his successor, the pathologist John Simon , ensured that the sewers were regularly flushed through,
7198-782: The cause of disease. In the Sui dynasty (581–618 CE), doctor Chao Yuanfang mentioned miasma in his book On Pathogen and Syndromes ( 諸病源候論 ). He thought that miasma in Southern China was similar to typhoid fever in Northern China. However, in his opinion, miasma was different from malaria and dysentery . In his book, he discussed dysentery in another chapter, and malaria in a single chapter. He also claimed that miasma caused various diseases, so he suggested that one should find apt and specific ways to resolve problems. The concept of miasma developed in several stages. First, before
7320-439: The central area is exceptionally high. Its day population is very much larger than its night population. Its traffic problems reach an intensity not encountered anywhere else in the Metropolis or in any provincial city, and the enormous office developments which have taken place recently constitute a totally new phenomenon. Starting in 2004, the London Plan defined a 'Central Activities Zone' policy area, which as of 2008 comprised
7442-412: The century preceding 1856, over a hundred sewers were constructed in London, and at that date the city had around 200,000 cesspits and 360 sewers. Some cesspits leaked methane and other gases, which often caught fire and exploded, while many of the sewers were in a poor state of repair. During the early 19th century improvements had been undertaken in the supply of water to Londoners, and by 1858 many of
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#17327725367157564-435: The chief engineer, Frank Foster, he began to develop a more systematic plan for the city's sewers. The stress of the position was too much for Foster and he died in 1852; Bazalgette was promoted into his position, and continued refining and developing the plans for the development of the sewerage system. The Metropolis Management Act 1855 replaced the commission with the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW), which took control of
7686-416: The cholera outbreaks overshadowed the partially correct theory brought forth by John Snow that cholera was spread through water. This slowed the response to the major outbreaks in the Soho district of London and other areas. The Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) was a proponent of the theory and worked to make hospitals sanitary and fresh-smelling. It was stated in 'Notes on Nursing for
7808-406: The city from epidemics. In 1866, the last of the three great British cholera epidemics took hold in a small area of Whitechapel . However, the area was not yet connected to Bazalgette's system, and the confined area of the epidemic acted as testament to the efficiency of the system's design. Years later, the influence of those sanitary reforms on Britain was described by Richard Rogers : London
7930-407: The city's medieval wooden water pipes were being replaced with iron ones. This, combined with the introduction of flushing toilets and the rising of the city's population from just under one million to three million, led to more water being flushed into the sewers, along with the associated effluent . The outfalls from factories, slaughterhouses and other industrial activities put further strain on
8052-427: The conclusions at which he has arrived in regard to the influence of the water-supply in causation of the epidemic." It was the last outbreak of the disease in the capital. In 1878 a Thames pleasure-steamer, the SS Princess Alice , collided with the collier Bywell Castle and sank, causing over 650 deaths. The accident took place close to the outfalls and questions were raised in the British press over whether
8174-432: The connection. This combined main sewer ran to the Abbey Mills Pumping Station in Stratford , where it was joined by the eastern end of the low-level sewer. The pumps at Abbey Mills lifted the effluent from the low-level sewer 36 feet (11 m) into the main sewer. This main sewer ran 5 miles (8 km)—along what is now known as the Greenway —to the outfall at Beckton . Like the Crossness Pumping Station, Abbey Mills
8296-420: The consultant engineer, Charles Driver , are listed for protection by English Heritage . Bazalgette's plan introduced the three embankments to London in which the sewers ran—the Victoria , Chelsea and Albert Embankments . Bazalgette's work ensured that sewage was no longer dumped onto the shores of the Thames and brought an end to the cholera outbreaks; his actions are thought to have saved more lives than
8418-451: The demands of 21st-century London". Crossness Pumping Station remained in use until the mid-1950s when it was replaced. The engines were too large to remove and were left in situ , although they fell into a state of disrepair. The station itself became a grade I listed building with the Ministry of Public Building and Works in June 1970 (since replaced by English Heritage). The building and its engines are, as of 2015, under restoration by
8540-399: The design of sanitation. That led, incidentally, to decreased outbreaks of cholera and thus helped to support the theory. The miasma theory was consistent with the observation that disease was associated with poor sanitation, and hence foul odours, and that sanitary improvements reduced disease. However, it was inconsistent with the findings arising from microbiology and bacteriology in
8662-431: The detailed plans and sectional views for the first phase of the building process. There were several engineering challenges to be overcome, particularly the fact that parts of London—including the area around Lambeth and Pimlico —lie below the high-water mark. Bazalgette's plan for the low-level areas was to lift the sewage from low-lying sewers at key points into the mid- and high-level sewers, which would then drain with
8784-441: The eclipsing of the miasma theory of disease. Although the connection between germ and disease was proposed quite early, it was not until the late 1800s that the germ theory was generally accepted. The miasmatic theory was challenged by John Snow , suggesting that there was some means by which the disease was spread via a poison or morbid material (orig: materies morbi ) in the water. He suggested this before and in response to
8906-454: The efforts of any other Victorian official. His sewer system operates into the 21st century, servicing a city that has grown to a population of over eight million. The historian Peter Ackroyd argues that Bazalgette should be considered a hero of London. Brick sewers had been built in London from the 17th century when sections of the Fleet and Walbrook rivers were covered for that purpose. In
9028-609: The engines. The ceremony, which was attended by other members of royalty, MPs, the Lord Mayor of London and the Archbishops of Canterbury and York , was followed by a dinner for 500 within the building. The ceremony marked the completion of construction of the Southern Outfall Sewers, and the beginning of their operation. With the successful completion of the southern outflow, one of the board members of
9150-519: The evil?" Manners pointed out "that Her Majesty's Government have nothing whatever to do with the state of the Thames". The satirical magazine Punch commented that "The one absorbing topic in both Houses of Parliament ... was the Conspiracy to Poison question. Of the guilt of that old offender, Father Thames, there was the most ample evidence". At the height of the stink, 200 to 250 long tons (220 to 280 short tons) of lime were being used near
9272-607: The explanations of miasma refer to it as a kind of sickness, or poison gas. The ancient Chinese thought that miasma was related to the environment of parts of Southern China. The miasma was thought to be caused by the heat, moisture and the dead air in the Southern Chinese mountains. They thought that insects' waste polluted the air, the fog, and the water, and the virgin forest harbored a great environment for miasma to occur. In descriptions by ancient travelers, soldiers, or local officials (most of them are men of letters) of
9394-486: The family, or in the room; I believe it is quite an exception for it to be conveyed in the air; though if the matter gets dry it may be wafted a short distance. The same year, William Farr , who was then the major supporter of the miasma theory, issued a report to criticize the germ theory. Farr and the Committee wrote that: After careful inquiry, we see no reason to adopt this belief. We do not feel it established that
9516-585: The final cost was approximately £6.5 million. In 1866 there was a further cholera outbreak in London that claimed 5,596 lives, although it was confined to an area of the East End between Aldgate and Bow . At the time that was a part of London which had not been connected to Bazalgette's system, and 93 per cent of the fatalities occurred within the area. The fault lay with the East London Water Company, who discharged their sewage half
9638-475: The first place to consider the seasons of the year, and what effects each of them produces for they are not at all alike, but differ much from themselves in regard to their changes. Then the winds, the hot and the cold, especially such as are common to all countries, and then such as are peculiar to each locality. We must also consider the qualities of the waters, for as they differ from one another in taste and weight, so also do they differ much in their qualities. In
9760-402: The ground, whether it be naked and deficient in water, or wooded and well watered, and whether it lies in a hollow, confined situation, or is elevated and cold; and the mode in which the inhabitants live, and what are their pursuits, whether they are fond of drinking and eating to excess, and given to indolence, or are fond of exercise and labor, and not given to excess in eating and drinking. In
9882-507: The inner parts of St Marylebone, St Pancras, Chelsea, Southwark and Lambeth. The boundary deviated from existing lines to include all central London railway stations , the Tower of London and the museums, such that it included small parts of Kensington, Shoreditch, Stepney and Bermondsey. It had an estimated population of 350,000 and occupied 7,000 acres (28 km ). "Scheme B" delineated central London, as one of 7 boroughs, including most of
10004-519: The later 19th century, which eventually led to the adoption of the germ theory of disease , although consensus was not reached immediately. Concerns over sewer gas , which was a major component of the miasma theory developed by Galen , and brought to prominence by the " Great Stink " in London in the summer of 1858, led proponents of the theory to observe that sewers enclosed the refuse of the human bowel, which medical science had discovered could teem with typhoid , cholera, and other microbes . In 1846,
10126-456: The level of the Thames dropped and raw effluent from the sewers remained on the banks of the river. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert attempted to take a pleasure cruise on the Thames, but returned to shore within a few minutes because the smell was so terrible. The press soon began calling the event "The Great Stink"; the leading article in the City Press observed that "Gentility of speech
10248-497: The management of London's sewers had gone through several changes in the 19th century. In 1848 the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers (MCS) was established at the urging of the social reformer Edwin Chadwick and a Royal Commission. The Commission superseded seven of the eight authorities that had managed London's sewers since the time of Henry VIII ; it was the first time that a unitary power had full control over
10370-457: The manufacturers, who altered their production processes to further improve the product. One of the cement manufacturers commented that the MBW were the first public body to use such testing processes. The progress of Bazalgette's works was reported favourably in the press. Paul Dobraszczyk , the architectural historian, describes the coverage as presenting many of the workers "in a positive, even heroic, light", and in 1861 The Observer described
10492-486: The media". For strategic planning, since 2011 there has been a Central London sub-region comprising the boroughs of Camden , Islington , Kensington and Chelsea , Lambeth , Southwark , Westminster and the City of London . From 2004 to 2008, the London Plan included a sub-region called Central London comprising Camden, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth and Westminster. It had
10614-471: The metropolitan area. Work on high-, mid- and low-level systems for the new Northern and Southern Outfall Sewers started at the beginning of 1859 and lasted until 1875. To aid the drainage, pumping stations were placed to lift the sewage from lower levels into higher pipes. Two of the more ornate stations, Abbey Mills in Stratford and Crossness on the Erith Marshes , with architectural designs from
10736-404: The minister "if the noble Lord has taken any measures for mitigating the effluvium and discontinuing the nuisance". Manners replied that the Thames was not under his jurisdiction. Four days later a second MP said to Manners that "By a perverse ingenuity, one of the noblest of rivers has been changed into a cesspool, and I wish to ask whether Her Majesty's Government intend to take any steps to remedy
10858-530: The mouths of the sewers that discharged into the Thames, and men were employed spreading lime onto the Thames foreshore at low tide; the cost was £1,500 per week. On 15 June Disraeli tabled the Metropolis Local Management Amendment Bill, a proposed amendment to the 1855 Act; in the opening debate he called the Thames "a Stygian pool, reeking with ineffable and intolerable horrors". The Bill put the responsibility to clear up
10980-481: The outfalls—the discharge points of waste outlets into other bodies of water—from the sewers, which he said were still within the bounds of the capital, and were therefore unacceptable. During the ongoing discussions, Bazalgette refined and modified his plans, in line with Hall's demands. In December 1856 Hall submitted the plans to a group of three consultant engineers, Captain Douglas Strutt Galton of
11102-564: The pantheon of London heroes" because of his work, particularly the building of the Victoria and Albert Embankments. Central London Central London is the innermost part of London , in England , spanning the City of London and several boroughs . Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteristics are understood to include
11224-470: The passes of Lan, my horse cannot go forward. But I know that you will come from afar, to fulfil your set purpose, And lovingly gather my bones, on the banks of that plague-stricken river. The prevalent belief and predominant fear of the southern region with its "poisonous air and gases" is evident in historical documents. Similar topics and feelings toward the miasma-infected south are often reflected in early Chinese poetry and records. Most scholars of
11346-446: The phenomenon of miasma, fog, haze, dust, gas, or poison geological gassing were always mentioned. The miasma was thought to have caused a lot of diseases such as the cold, influenza, heat strokes, malaria , or dysentery. In the medical history of China, malaria had been referred to by different names in different dynasty periods. Poisoning and psittacosis were also called miasma in ancient China because they did not accurately understand
11468-473: The poets and historians, the word finally made its way into scientific nomenclature, where it has remained ever since [...] a satisfactory explanation for pestilence and an adequate excuse for non-exertion to prevent its recurrence. The current germ theory accounts for disease proliferation by both direct and indirect physical contact. In the early 19th century, the living conditions in industrialized cities in Britain were increasingly unsanitary. The population
11590-792: The president of ICE at the time, said that Bazalgette's work "will ever remain as monuments to his skill and professional ability". The obituarist for The Times opined that "when the New Zealander comes to London a thousand years hence ... the magnificent solidity and the faultless symmetry of the great granite blocks which form the wall of the Thames-embankment will still remain." He continued, "the great sewer that runs beneath Londoners ... has added some 20 years to their chance of life". The historian Peter Ackroyd , in his history of subterranean London , considers that "with [John] Nash and [Christopher] Wren , Bazalgette enters
11712-406: The procedure remained in service until December 1998, when the dumping stopped and an incinerator was used to dispose of the waste. The sewers were expanded in the late 19th century and again in the early 20th century. The drainage network is, as at 2015, managed by Thames Water , and is used by up to eight million people a day. The company said in 2014 that "the system is struggling to cope with
11834-518: The progress on the sewers as "the most expensive and wonderful work of modern times". Construction costs were so high that in July 1863 an additional £1.2 million was lent to the MBW to cover the cost of the work. The southern system, across the less populated suburbs of London, was the smaller and easier part of the system to build. Three main sewers ran from Putney , Wandsworth and Norwood until they linked together in Deptford . At that point
11956-541: The same exact meaning, it can be loosely translated as 'stain' or 'pollution'. The idea later gave rise to the name malaria (literally 'bad air' in Medieval Italian ). Miasma was considered to be a poisonous vapor or mist filled with particles from decomposed matter (miasmata) that caused illnesses. The miasmatic position was that diseases were the product of environmental factors such as contaminated water, foul air, and poor hygienic conditions. Such infection
12078-518: The same manner, when one comes into a city to which he is a stranger, he ought to consider its situation, how it lies as to the winds and the rising of the sun; for its influence is not the same whether it lies to the north or the south, to the rising or to the setting sun. These things one ought to consider most attentively, and concerning the waters which the inhabitants use, whether they be marshy and soft, or hard, and running from elevated and rocky situations, and then if saltish and unfit for cooking; and
12200-521: The second outbreak, John Snow , a London-based physician, noticed that the rates of death were higher in those areas supplied by the Lambeth and the Southwark and Vauxhall water companies. In 1849 he published a paper, On the Mode of Communication of Cholera , which posited the theory of the water-borne transmission of disease, rather than the miasma theory; little attention was paid to the paper. Following
12322-528: The sewage was responsible for some of the deaths. In the 1880s further fears over possible health concerns because of the outfalls led to the MBW purifying sewage at Crossness and Beckton, rather than dumping the untreated waste into the river, and a series of six sludge boats were ordered to ship effluent into the North Sea for dumping. The first boat commissioned in 1887 was named the SS Bazalgette ;
12444-422: The sewers. By June 1856 Bazalgette completed his definitive plans, which provided for small, local sewers about 3 feet (0.9 m) in diameter to feed into a series of larger sewers until they drained into main outflow pipes 11 feet (3.4 m) high. A Northern and Southern Outfall Sewer were planned to manage the waste for each side of the river. London was mapped into high-, middle- and low-level areas, with
12566-767: The site unhealthy. The miasmatic theory of disease remained popular in the Middle Ages and a sense of effluvia contributed to Robert Boyle's Suspicions about the Hidden Realities of the Air . In the 1850s, miasma was used to explain the spread of cholera in London and in Paris , partly justifying Haussmann's later renovation of the French capital . The disease was said to be preventable by cleansing and scouring of
12688-484: The spread of contagious diseases , some academics in the early nineteenth century suggested that the theory extended to other conditions as well, e.g. one could become obese by inhaling the odor of food. The miasma theory was advanced by Hippocrates in the fourth century BC and accepted from ancient times in Europe and China . The theory was eventually abandoned by scientists and physicians after 1880, replaced by
12810-513: The surface, even in water of this kind. ... The smell was very bad, and common to the whole of the water; it was the same as that which now comes up from the gully-holes in the streets; the whole river was for the time a real sewer." The smell from the river was so bad that in 1857 the government poured chalk lime, chloride of lime and carbolic acid into the river to ease the stench. The prevailing thought in Victorian healthcare concerning
12932-426: The time agreed that the geological environments in the south had a direct impact on the population composition and growth. Many historical records reflect that females were less prone to miasma infection, and mortality rates were much higher in the south, especially for the men. This directly influenced agriculture cultivation and the southern economy, as men were the engine of agriculture production. Zhou Qufei ( 周去非 ),
13054-401: The transmission of contagious diseases was the miasma theory , which held that most communicable diseases were caused by the inhalation of contaminated air. This contamination could take the form of the odour of rotting corpses or sewage, but also rotting vegetation, or the exhaled breath of someone already diseased. Miasma was believed by most to be the vector of transmission of cholera , which
13176-439: The two trenches collapsed, spilling the waters of the Fleet onto Victoria Street, damaging the gas and water mains. The high-level sewer—the most northern of the works—ran from Hampstead Heath to Stoke Newington and across Victoria Park , where it joined with the eastern end of the mid-level sewer. The mid-level sewer began in the west at Bayswater and ran along Oxford Street , through Clerkenwell and Bethnal Green , before
13298-420: The weak or infirm, avoided breathing night air by going indoors and keeping windows and doors shut. In addition to ideas associated with zymotic theory, there was also a general fear that cold or cool air spread disease. The fear of night air gradually disappeared as understanding about disease increased as well as with improvements in home heating and ventilation . Particularly important was the understanding that
13420-499: Was a joint design by Bazalgette and Driver. Above the centre of the engine-house was an ornate dome that, Dobraszczyk considers, gives the building a "superficial resemblance ... to a Byzantine church". The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner , in his Buildings of England , thought the building showed "exciting architecture applied to the most foul purposes"; he went on to describe it as "an unorthodox mix, vaguely Italian Gothic in style but with tiers of Byzantine windows and
13542-406: Was affected, and the curtains on the river side of the building were soaked in lime chloride to overcome the smell. The measure was not successful, and discussions were held about possibly moving the business of government to Oxford or St Albans . The Examiner reported that Disraeli, on attending one of the committee rooms, left shortly afterwards with the other members of the committee, "with
13664-450: Was all but compelled to legislate upon the great London nuisance by the force of sheer stench". The bill was debated in late July and was passed into law on 2 August. Bazalgette's plans for the 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of additional street sewers (collecting both effluent and rainwater), which would feed into 82 miles (132 km) of main interconnecting sewers, were put out to tender between 1859 and 1865. Four hundred draftsmen worked on
13786-487: Was an unattractive economic prospect. In the face of such economic interests, reform was slow to be adopted. In 1855, John Snow made a testimony against the Amendment to the "Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act" that regularized air pollution of some industries. He claimed that: That is possible; but I believe that the poison of the cholera is either swallowed in water, or got directly from some other person in
13908-403: Was growing at a much faster rate than the infrastructure could support. For example, the population of Manchester doubled within a single decade, leading to overcrowding and a significant increase in waste accumulation. The miasma theory of disease made sense to the sanitary reformers of the mid-19th century. Miasmas explained why cholera and other diseases were epidemic in places where the water
14030-618: Was much slower than in the north, where the dynasties' political power resided for much of early Chinese history. In India , there was also a miasma theory. Gambir was considered the first antimiasmatic application. This gambir tree is found in Southern India and Sri Lanka. Based on zymotic theory, people believed vapors called miasmata (singular: miasma ) rose from the soil and spread diseases. Miasmata were believed to come from rotting vegetation and foul water—especially in swamps and urban ghettos . Many people, especially
14152-462: Was not passed between individuals but would affect individuals within the locale that gave rise to such vapors. It was identifiable by its foul smell. It was also initially believed that miasmas were propagated through worms from ulcers within those affected by a plague. In the fifth or fourth century BC, Hippocrates wrote about the effects of the environs over the human diseases: Whoever wishes to investigate medicine properly, should proceed thus: in
14274-412: Was on the rise in 19th-century Europe. 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. In 1848–49 there was a second outbreak in which 14,137 London residents died, and this was followed by a further outbreak in 1853–54 in which 10,738 died. During
14396-410: Was present in the air in the form of miasma, and thus could proliferate without physical contact. Two members of the latter group were Dr. Thomas S. Smith and Florence Nightingale. Thomas Southwood Smith spent many years comparing the miasmatic theory to contagionism. To assume the method of propagation by touch, whether by the person or of infected articles, and to overlook that by the corruption of
14518-498: Was stagnant and foul-smelling. A leading sanitary reformer, London's Edwin Chadwick , asserted that "all smell is disease", and maintained that a fundamental change in the structure of sanitation systems was needed to combat increasing urban mortality rates. Chadwick saw the problem of cholera and typhoid epidemics as being directly related to urbanization, and he proposed that new, independent sewerage systems should be connected to homes. Chadwick supported his proposal with reports from
14640-511: Was the first city to create a complex civic administration which could coordinate modern urban services, from public transport to housing, clean water to education. London's County Council was acknowledged as the most progressive metropolitan government in the world. Fifty years earlier, London had been the worst slum city of the industrialized world: over-crowded, congested, polluted and ridden with disease... The miasma theory did contribute to containing disease in urban settlements, but did not allow
14762-433: Was the source of cholera epidemics, a review committee concluded that Snow's findings were not significant enough to warrant change, and they were summarily dismissed. Additionally, other interests intervened in the process of reform. Many water companies and civic authorities pumped water directly from contaminated sources such as the Thames to public wells, and the idea of changing sources or implementing filtration techniques
14884-484: Was thought that miasma did not simply travel on air but changed the air through which it propagated; the atmosphere was infected by miasma, as diseased people were. In China, miasma ( Chinese : 瘴氣 ; pinyin : Zhàngqì ; alternative names 瘴毒 , 瘴癘 ) is an old concept of illness, used extensively by ancient Chinese local chronicles and works of literature. Miasma has different names in Chinese culture. Most of
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