Why was the Great Stink significant?

It helped to keep contaminated waste from sources of drinking water and thereby significantly reduced the threat to Londoners from waterborne disease. It also succeeded in removing, or rather displacing, the smell of raw sewage from central London.

What was the effects of the Great Stink?

6,536 people died in London, and an estimated 20,000 nationally, as a result of this outbreak. During the second major epidemic in 1848 the death toll in London more than doubled. The third outbreak in 1853–54 claimed 10,738 lives in the capital.

How did London solve the great stink?

In Britain, and London in particular, after the deaths of tens of thousands, acts were passed to rid city streets of open sewers and cesspits. The solution appeared simple: run all the waste disposal channels directly into the Thames River.

What was the great stink and when did it happen?

June 1858
Great Stink/Start dates

How did England clean the Thames?

Diverting sewage fixed the smell, but the river became dead. Another mission to clean the Thames was undertaken in 1960. This further improved sewage treatment, industrial discharges were removed, oxygen levels increased, and biodegradable detergents came into use.

How did people overcome the great stink?

By June the stench from the river had become so bad that business in Parliament was affected, and the curtains on the river side of the building were soaked in lime chloride to overcome the smell.

Who Solved the Great Stink?

One of the most vocal and well-known supporters of Thames reform was an English chemist and physicist named Michael Faraday. He staunchly supported a complete reformation of the toxic river, so much so that after a boat ride along its surface, he composed and sent a letter to the editor of The Times newspaper.

What stopped the great stink?

Why Thames river is brown?

Many Londoners may not believe the Thames is actually clean, given it looks a little grim. No matter how much work is done to clean the Thames, it will still look brown, as this is because it is a muddy river, owing to the silt on the riverbed.

What is the dirtiest river in the world?

Citarum River
1. Citarum River, Indonesia – The Citarum River is known as the most polluted river in the world and is located in West Java, Indonesia.

What did old London smell like?

The air itself was generally filled with soot and smoke. It was famously said of the sheep in Regent’s Park — there were still grazing sheep in Regent’s Park in the mid-Victorian period — that you could tell how long they’d been in the capital by how dirty their coats were.

What was the smell of London in Victorian times?

Source: Historic England Archive OP04618 The smell of human waste and industrial effluent hung over Victorian London. For centuries the River Thames had been used as a dumping ground for the capital’s waste and as the population grew, so did the problem.

Is London’s fear of the Great Stink misplaced?

However, a physician named John Snow determined that Londoners’ fear of the Great Stink was misplaced. During the third cholera epidemic that struck the city, Snow investigated the disease’s spread in the neighborhood of Soho.

What was the Great Stink of 1858?

July 10, 1858.] In 1858, a powerful stench terrorized London for two months. The source of what’s now known as the Great Stink was the River Thames, into which the city’s sewers emptied.

What was the Great Stink and what was its effect?

The miasma from the effluent was thought to transmit contagious diseases, and three outbreaks of cholera before the Great Stink were blamed on the ongoing problems with the river. The smell, and fears of its possible effects, prompted action from the local and national administrators who had been considering possible solutions for the problem.