In the summer of 1858, the smell of the Thames helped push London toward a vast underground rebuild.
The Great Stink came as heat baked human and industrial waste in the river. London Museum explains that Parliament hurried funding for a new sewer network, led by engineer Joseph Bazalgette. His plan joined drains to brick-lined intercepting sewers and pumping stations that carried waste downstream, away from central London.
The project was enormous: about 1,100 miles of street drains fed into 82 miles of major sewers. Construction required millions of bricks, and the works also reshaped the riverfront with new embankments. Much of the Victorian network remains part of London's system, though the original design was not a complete fix: sewage still entered the Thames during heavy rainfall, and later treatment plants were needed.
Bazalgette did not invent sanitation alone, but his carefully managed infrastructure changed what city life could be.