12. A summer heatwave made a bad smell unbearable – and even people living miles outside central London suffered
London was, then, a dirty, smelly city well before the summer of 1858, with poor sanitation and a filthy main river running through it. So the last thing Londoners needed was a heatwave. But that’s exactly what they got. In June of that year he temperatures in the capital averaged 34-36 °C (93-97 °F) in the shade, rising to 48 °C (118 °F) in the sun. far from being pleasant, this made things truly unbearable. Indeed, it was said that you could smell the foulness of the Thames more than 8 miles away!
The heatwave also caused water levels to fall. By July of 1858, the height of the Thames had dropped significantly. While there was less dirty water flowing under London’s famous bridges, this meant that raw effluent from the sewers started to pile up on the banks of the river. In some places right in the heart of the city, these mounds of waste stood 6 feet high. Most people avoided going down to the river if they could, but even then they couldn’t escape the overpowering stench.