The Great Stink Paperback – February 15, 2001

While the title implies the book's focus will be London's "Great Stink" of 1858, it is in fact a short biography of the eminent Victorian civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Less remembered than his fellow engineers Isambard Brunel or Robert Stephenson, Bazalgette was the Chief Engineer of London's Metropolitan Board of Works for some 30 years.During his tenure, he oversaw the construction of the great intercepting sewers of London which effectively removed the recurring threat of cholera from the city even before that disease's transmission mechanism was fully understood. In addition, the great Embankments along the Thames were designed and built by Bazalgette which make the modern waterfront as we know it today. He also built three bridges still standing across the Thames and designed many of the modern thoroughfares of London.This book focuses on the long political battles waged in Parliament, the press, and within the City itself to solve the massive problem of human waste disposal in the world's largest western metropolis of the day. Although ostensibly about a civil engineer, there is not much engineering in the book - making it highly accessible to the layperson. Copious contemporary illustrations out of "Punch" and the "Illustrated London News" along with lengthy quotations from "The Times" make the Victorians' view of this smelly problem come to life. It's fortunate that this is not a scratch-and-sniff book.The main chapters include those devoted to the invention of the water closet (a sewage nightmare), cholera and sanitation, and the building of the embankments. Throughout the book, small sidebars give potted biographies of key players and interested parties of the day such as Dickens, W.H. Smith, Gladstone, Dr. John Snow, and others. These are great little tidbits on the people featured in the main narrative and they are liberally sprinkled with caricatures from "Spy".The book does touch on Bazalgette's early endorsement and use of Portland cement as a technical innovation as well as the quality assurance testing techniques that he enforced during his projects. So engineer, take heart! There are interesting bits for you as well.If dark places under the heart of the metropolis is your area of interest, see also "London Under London" by Richard Trench & Ellis Hillman for sewers, the Tube, and more subterranean passages. And if you simply must have olfactory re-enforcement to imagine the past, try "Victorian Vapours" by Mary J. Dobson.

A book which gives credit where credit is due to a Great Man and Engineer, Joseph Bazalgette! He was very modest, but his work was heroic legend! He made London safe to live and work in plus improving the streets, bridges, and parks. The City of London owes a great debt to Bazalgette. A great history read!

Purchased after reading Rose George's The Big Necessity.This book gives a historic perspective on London sewage. What really happens when you flush the toilet how effluent is treated and by whom learn about your waste treatment department how it functions. What federal violations and fines have been levied and why.Great read for your daily commute.

My father and I both enjoyed the heck out of this book. If you've ever wanted to learn about the building of a metropolitan sewer system, or get a glimpse of the impossible difficulties of public works, this is a good story. Actually fast-paced and not technically difficult, it was an easy, fun, and educational read. Makes me appreciate many things when I'm walking around London. Now, if only London would create a Sewer Museum like Paris, or if we could get the story of the Paris wastewater system....

Fascinating history about a man who did so much in his lifetime & deserves a lot more exposure & recognition. In some ways outdoes Brunel in engineering achievements. The author also provides interesting credits to other people who helped him achieve his success & also points out the shortsightedness of others.

Fascinating, exhaustive detailing...if you are interested in city infrastructures and the political climates that affect their implementation, especially for the timeless London, this is your book!

As a water engineer and a history buff, I was really looking forward to this book. It unfortunately fails to deliver on both themes. There is almost nothing that would qualify as engineering details and descriptions, when a bare minimum would have been useful.Fair enough, I thought, let us just focus on the hero, Sir Balzagette. Sadly enough, it is difficult to judge of his capacities (planning, decision-making, management) and personality as we only get snippets in a few sentences. Actually like all the main characters (mostly politicians), he is very summarily described.Lastly regarding the political decision process, which takes quite a bit of room, it surfaces there and then but without any continuity in the telling.At the end of the day this book is just a series of anecdotes. This shows research, but not the needed analytical process to link these together, identify themes and tell a story. Too bad!

Fascinating. Not overly technical and certainly could have used more technical explanations, but good history. The "phew" was not for the book.

It's a shame that this is the only biography of Bazalgette, because it's a missed opportunity. Clearly well-researched, the book reads like a dissertation which has been hurriedly converted into a book. For example, Chapter 2 begins, 'This chapter will analyse the factors which. . .'While interesting, because if this the book is unengaging and pedestrian. Failing to immerse the reader in either the life of Bazalgette or the 'great stink'. It needs to be re-written in a more literary, engaging and evocative style, rather than the academic, dry style it currently is.

I have not read all the available literature on London’s sewage system in the 1800s, but it is hard to imagine a more compelling account than this one. It is probably not for the faint hearted. Providing an authoritative tale of the struggles in making the case against having human excrement in drinking water, the organisational and engineering challenges.This was a remarkable era, and the book presents a strong case for Sir Joseph Bazalgette being one of its heroes.At times, with copious references, the book did feel a little like a PHD dissertation, and it did jump about at points, without a clear narrative thread, but these are very minor quibbles. Generously filled with incident and anecdote, this is a good natured and inspiring account of remarkable people in remarkable times.

This is a bit of a specialist book - probably not for general readers, but if you are interested in the history of London's sewers, buy this !Until 1815 it was illegal to put your toilet waste into the sewer in London - the drains were for rainwater only. Every house had a cesspit and paid a shilling to have it emptied periodically. Then they invented the flushing toilet (are changed the law to allow you to use the sewers) and by 1858 the Thames stank so badly Parliament was suspended because they couldn't bear to be so close to the Thames.The solution was a series of sewers build under the Embankment by Joseph Bazalgette. .. (and his descendant brought us the TV show Big Brother - not in the book)

If you love Old London, Victoriana, technical history then I recommend this book.It describes the appalling conditions in the early to mid 19th century in the worlds most populated city of water & sewage - things that today we take for granted as being unseen, segregated and clean. Even today much of this is due to the ambition and skill of Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Much of London as we know it today evolved as a result of his invention and foresight and certainly his skills saved many lives in the longer run. Fascinating & to think that it is only now that much of his sytem is being upgraded - how much of what is built today would still be in use 100 years from now?

Very interesting book describing the works of Bazelgette