Story of cities #14: London's Great Stink heralds a wonder of the industrial world

By the mid-1800s, the River Thames had been used as a dumping ground for human excrement for centuries. At last, fear of its 'evil odour' led to one of the greatest advancements in urban planning: Joseph Bazalgette's sewage system

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In the steaming hot summer of 1858, the hideous stench of human excrement rising from the River Thames and seeping through the hallowed halls of the Houses of Parliament finally got too much for Britain's politicians - those who had not already fled in fear of their lives to the countryside.

Clutching hankies to their noses and ready to abandon their newly built House for fresher air upstream, the lawmakers agreed urgent action was needed to purify London of the "evil odour" that was commonly believed to be the cause of disease and death.