Setting the Scene

London in the 1850s was drowning in its own filth. Open sewers, cesspools in basements, the Thames a flowing cesspit. Cholera epidemics killed thousands. Doctors blamed "miasma" — bad air from rotting matter. Then Dr John Snow did something remarkable: he mapped cholera deaths in Soho and traced them to a single water pump on Broad Street. He removed the pump handle, and deaths dropped. Snow had proved cholera was spread by contaminated water — even though he didn't know about germs. But government only acted after the "Great Stink" of 1858 made Parliament itself unbearable.