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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Matthew Weaver

The Great Stink of 2026? Hot, dry summer leaves London holding its nose

Barbara Evans London Joseph Bazalgette Simon Clarke
Cartoon of a slimy man coming out of the Thames and gesturing to a boy holding his nose. Caption reads: 'The London bathing season. 'Come my dear! Come to its Old Thames and have a nice bath!'
A cartoon from 1859. The UK’s drainage system is still based on the work of the Victorian civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette, who designed London’s sewers in response to the 1858 Great Stink. Photograph: Print Collector/Getty Images

London was “reeking with ineffable and intolerable horrors” after weeks of temperatures exceeding 30C and minimal rainfall. This was Disraeli’s description of the Great Stink of 1858, but something similarly disgusting has been happening this summer.

Once again, an exceptionally hot and dry spell has exposed the putrid stench of untreated human waste.

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