London Literally Stank In The Summer Of 1858 — Just Ask Dickens And Darwin
In One Hot Summer, historian Rosemary Ashton follows Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin and Benjamin Disraeli through an unpleasant couple of months — as the River Thames flowed with hot, smelly sewage.
Londoners may feel hot this summer, but historian Rosemary Ashton says it's nothing compared to what the city endured in 1858. That was the year of "The Great Stink" — when the Thames River, hot and filled with sewage, made life miserable for the residents of the city.
"It was continuously hot for two to three months with temperatures up into the 90s quite often," Ashton says. "The hottest recorded day up to that point in history was the 16th of June, 1858, when the temperature
