Joseph Bazalgette
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Sir Joseph William Bazalgette was a British civil engineer. As Chief Engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works, his major achievement was the creation of the London Main Drainage, the sewerage
Bazalgette, c. 1864–1877
The London sewer system being built in 1860 led by Bazalgette (top right)
The old Abbey Mills Pumping Station in Mill Meads, East London
Drainage reports by Bazalgette in the Institution of Civil Engineers archives
Great Stink
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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
"The Silent Highwayman" (1858). Death rows on the Thames, claiming the lives of victims who have not paid to have the river cleaned up.
"Monster Soup commonly called Thames Water" (1828), by the artist William Heath
"A Drop of Thames Water", as seen by Punch (1850)
"Dirty Father Thames" (1848) Filthy river, filthy river, Foul from London to the Nore, What art thou but one vast gutter, One tremendous common shore?