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

Stephen Halliday (Author), Adam Hart-Davis (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2001

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. This book is an account of his life and work.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: The History Press (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750925809
• ISBN-13: 978-0750925808
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #829,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Making a Big Stink, July 6, 2000

By 

alastair sasaki mccapra - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis (Hardcover)

If anyone thinks the social, environmental and health problems we face today are daunting, they should read this book. The descriptions of life in London before the construction of a sewage system make facinating, if terrifying, reading.

The good thing about this book is that is is basically a very easy read. Although it is about a civil engineer, and although it concentrates very much on the engineering aspects of Bazalgette's life, it is entirely non-technical and an excellent choice for the general reader. Anyone with a general interest in public health, Victorian London, urban development or municipal politics will find it easy to read and a good starting point for further reading or research.

One of the points which comes out of the book is how slow public health reforms are to come about - you have to kick up a pretty big stink before anything happens. Bazalgette was more of a provider of solutions than a public health campaigner, but none the less admirable for that.

Today public building in London seems to be a race between Norman Foster and Richard Rogers - I was astonished to learn how many buildings, bridged and other projects in modern London were Bazalgette'. He was a busy and capable man, and his life is a very interesting read.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant biography, May 17, 2001

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis (Hardcover)

Halliday's book tells the story of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, Chief Engineer to the Metropolitan Board of Works (London's first metropolitan government) from 1856 to 1889.

His greatest achievement was building for London a sanitation system of unprecedented scale and complexity. Throughout history, the main cause of death has been the contamination of drinking water by sewage. In particular, cholera spread when the faeces of sufferers contaminated drinking water: cholera epidemics in London killed 6,536 people in 1831-32, 14,137 in 1848-49, and 10,738 in 1853-54.

In the long hot summer of 1858, the stench from rotting sewage in the Thames drove MPs from Westminster. The `Great Stink' forced them, belatedly, to act. Bazalgette was charged with building a system to prevent sewage getting into Londoners' drinking water, which he did. The 1866 cholera epidemic killed 5,596 people in the East End, the sole part of London that had not yet been protected by Bazalgette's intercepting system. After the system was completed, cholera would never again kill Londoners. Bazalgette had turned the Thames from the filthiest to the cleanest metropolitan river in the world and added some twenty years to Londoners' lives.

But this was not Bazalgette's only success. He constructed the Victoria, Albert and Chelsea Embankments, where he introduced the use of Portland cement. He laid out Shaftesbury Avenue, Northumberland Avenue, Charing Cross Road, the Embankment Gardens, Battersea Park and Clapham Common. He built the bridges at Hammersmith, Putney and Battersea. He introduced the Woolwich Free Ferry and designed the Blackwall Tunnel.

In 1889, the London County Council replaced the Board: Bazalgette's successes had proven the value of local government for great cities. Roy Porter wrote that Bazalgette stands with Wren and Nash `as one of London's noblest builders'. John Doxat wrote, "this superb and farsighted engineer probably did more good, and saved more lives, than any single Victorian public official."

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting subject, good read, November 11, 2001

By 

J. G. Heiser (Sunninghill, Berks) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Great Stink of London: Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the Cleansing of the Victorian Metropolis (Paperback)

A fascinating story and worthy tribute to Joseph Bazalgette, an underappreciated Victorina-era engineer responsible not only for designing and overseeing the construction of London's huge sanitary sewer system, but also the construction of Victoria, Chelsea and Albert Embankments, forever changing the face and character of central London. We take so much of our modern cities for granted, not realizing that entire rivers are flowing under the streets, blissfully unaware of the level of vision and committment required to create an infrastructure that provides health and convenience.

The writing style is breezy and lucid, although the author has a distracting habit of repetition. Certain factoids, such as "the embankments reclaimed 52 acres of land" are repeated over and over again, and several favorite quotes are repeated at least 3 times.

I won't ever look at a modern city the same way.