Parliament passes a bill on August 2…

Parliament passes a bill on August 2 to create a modern sewage system in London as a result of the Great Stink, when the heat of the summer makes the smell of untreated human waste and industrial effluent in the Thames unbearable.

The problem has been mounting for some years, with an ageing and inadequate sewer system that empties directly into the Thames.

The miasma from the effluent is thought to transmit contagious diseases, and three outbreaks of cholera before the Great Stink are blamed on the ongoing problems with the river.

The smell, and fears of its possible effects, had prompted action from the local and national administrators who had been considering possible solutions for the problem.

The authorities had accepted a proposal from the civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette to move the effluent eastwards along a series of interconnecting sewers that sloped towards outfalls beyond the metropolitan area.

Work on high-, mid- and low-level systems for the new Northern and Southern Outfall Sewers will start at the beginning of 1859 and last until 1875.

To aid the drainage, pumping stations will be placed to lift the sewage from lower levels into higher pipes.

Two of the more ornate stations, Abbey Mills in Stratford and Crossness on the Erith Marshes, will be listed for protection by English Heritage.

Bazalgette's plan will introduce the three embankments to London in which the sewers run—the Victoria, Chelsea and Albert Embankments.

Bazalgette's work will ensured that sewage is no longer dumped onto the shores of the Thames and bring an end to the cholera outbreaks; his actions are thought to have saved more lives than the efforts of any other Victorian official.

His sewer system will operate into the twenty-first century, servicing a city that will grow to a population of over eight million.

The historian Peter Ackroyd will argue that Bazalgette should be considered a hero of London.