In the Victorian Era, British Slums Were a Cesspool of Disease
In the 1800’s, many rich people began leaving central London for the surrounding suburbs. This left many parts of the city to be populated by the poor. Many of these slums were awful to live in. They had no proper sanitation, no drains, and some apartments didn’t even have windows. Since people lived without running water, they would all share the same water pump on their street. These conditions were a perfect storm when it came to the spread of disease. One of the most famous examples was the 1854 Broad Street Cholera Outbreak. This outbreak killed 616 people. Finally, a doctor named John Snow figured out that the water pump on Broad Street was the source of the Cholera germs.