The Growth Of London At The Turn Of The Century

In 1854 London was a city of scavengers, along with a Bohemian crowd of poets, writers and musicians, the home of the River Thames. The city’s growth was spectacular. A census in 1851 registered 2-1/2 million people in a total of ninety square miles of space, “…up from around a million at the turn of the century.” (Johnson, S. p.12) London was economically diverse with its opulent townhouses of Mayfair and Kensington surrounded by streets of poverty and foul smelling industry. . The storefronts and pubs were in first level housing with crowded apartment living on the upper floors. There were bakeries, museums and art galleries, slaughterhouses, factories, tripe boilers and breweries; all sharing the same streets and the same water, which was being taken from and dumped into the Thames. …show more content…
Pure-finers collected dog shit for tanners, while the Toshers waded the Thames at low tides for metals. The Night Soil Men cleaned cesspools in basements and yards. However, as in any supply and demand economy, Night Soil Men became expensive and in a city wracked with poverty many dwellings with two and three families sharing rooms were growing extremely large mounds of excrement in their basements and yards that flowed onto their streets. In addition, the wealthy at the time were enjoying the new invention and modern marvel, the water closet. The new convenience flushed waste away, whisking it right into the River Thames. Literally, London was drowning in its own