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

thumbnail

List Price: £9.99 (GBP)
  • Lowest New Price: £6.07
  • Lowest Used Price: £5.50
  • Total New: 15
  • Total Used: 13
  • Total Collectible: 0
  • Total Refurbished: 0

Features:

  • New
  • Mint Condition
  • Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
  • Guaranteed packaging
  • No quibbles returns
  • Author : Stephen Halliday
  • Binding : Paperback
  • EAN : 9780750925808
  • Edition : New Ed
  • Format : Illustrated
  • ISBN : 0750925809
  • Is Eligible For Trade In? : Yes
  • Label : The History Press Ltd
  • Languages : Original Language: English, Published: English
  • Manufacturer : The History Press Ltd
  • Number Of Items : 1
  • Number Of Pages : 224
  • Package Dimensions : 0.55 inches (Height) x 9.53 inches (Length) x 1.37 pounds (Weight) x 6.77 inches (Width)
  • Product Group : Book
  • Publication Date : 2001-02-15
  • Publisher : The History Press Ltd
  • SKU : KB-9780750925808
  • Studio : The History Press Ltd

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. The engineer entrusted by Parliament with this enormous task was Sir Joseph Bazalgette. This book presents an account of his life and work.

- Product Description

Stephen Halliday describes the writing of this book as "a labour of love", but it would take a strong stomach to love some of the material he includes about the 19th- century Thames. Two million people poured their sewage directly into the river, "more filth was continuously adding to it," noted a contemporary, "until the Thames became absolutely pestilential". In the 1850s the river was black, and in the hot summer of 1858 the stink was so unbearable that the Houses of Parliament were driven from the chamber. But a hero emerges from this smelly mess, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, a Victorian engineer of prodigious energy and foresight, who "turned the Thames from the filthiest to the cleanest metropolitan river in the world, which it remains." Halliday is indeed a little in love with his subject, Bazalgette, but it is easy to see why. The construction of the system of sanitation on which London still relies an enormous undertaking, but Bazalgette saw it through with tenacity and a kind of engineering genius. He saved more lives (by freeing the city from cholera) than any single Victorian public official. This book is a small marvel, elegantly written, generously illustrated and a fascinating insight into the guts of London. --Adam Roberts

- Amazon.co.uk Review

Leave a Comment:

(required)

(will not be published) (required)

Copyright © 1999-2012 Data Growth Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use |