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.
