A surprising number of our articles have covered the history of sanitation and keeping oneself clean. So take a water sample of a few of our articles on this theme - including a rather odd London lamp ...
An extraordinary Victorian building survives in south-east London. It represents some of the best architectural design and decoration of the period, with the interior a jewelled box of painted ornamental cast iron. Rather astonishingly, the Crossness Pumping Station is a former sewage works.
Of course, the idea of the shower has been around ever since the first person in need of a wash stood under a waterfall, but the first mechanical shower was patented in England in 1767 by William Feetham.
On the 8th September 1854, the authorities removed the handle of the water pump in Broad Street in Soho, London - suspecting that infected water from it was causing an outbreak of deadly cholera. When this action proved effective in reducing the rates of the disease, it was finally understood that cholera spread through water not air.
"Sewer King" Sir Joseph William Bazalgette (1819 –1891) was a civil engineer, most famous for the creation of a sewer network for central London, which cleaned up the human waste that brought disease and stench to the capital, and consequently saved many lives over the years.
The urbanisation of London has meant that many original features of the landscape have been lost - with street names often the only reminder of their previous existence. One of these is the river Fleet, the largest of London’s lost subterranean rivers, which gave its name to the original home of the newspaper industry, Fleet Street.
When the sewerage system upon which Londoners still rely was first put in place at the end of the 19th century, a series of street lamps were installed above to help with ventilation, and to burn off noxious fumes. One still remains on Carting Lane, just off the Strand, next to the Savoy Hotel.
