We imagine that a on a daily basis a large number of you think ‘will the Runoff EVER do a feature on sewage and foul smells’? Well dear reader, your time HAS COME!

The Victorians gave London many architectural gems; the Houses of Parliament and St. Pancras to name a few. In Kennington they endowed us with probably London’s most attractive example of a  Stinkpipe, and it’s right above your nose in central Kennington. If you’re wondering what we’re talking about, the Victorians solved many problems but struggled with sewage for years. This was called The Great Stink of London and resulted in some radical methods to solve it.. Stinkpipes were one such method and were installed around London to divert the smell of poo and their more noxious byproducts. The idea was to elevate the odours from sewers and subterranean rivers above sensitive Victorian noses.

So while the Great Stink might have been deplorable, it realised great advancements later in the industrial age, such the creation of the Embankment and cleaning up of the Thames. More recently the Stink has also been credited with a number of interesting and slightly unsettling blogs dedicated to Stinkpipes and other above ground sewage devices.