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This Jane Austen blog brings Jane Austen, her novels, and the Regency Period alive through food, dress, social customs, and other 19th C. historical details related to this topic.

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Fawlty Regency London – Oh, What a Stench! Part One

March 30, 2011 by Vic

Copyright @ Jane Austen’s World.  Looking back 200 years (the precise date that the formal Regency era began was 1811) we tend to view Jane Austen’s Regency world wearing rose-tinted glasses.

Early 19th century London street scene

Imagine the traffic in London back then:

In July 1811,

it appears that there passed over Blackfriars bridge in one day: 61,069 foot passengers, 533 waggons, 1,502 carts and drays, 990 coaches, 500 gigs and taxed carts, and 822 horses. On the same day, July 1811, there passed over London bridge: 89,640 foot passengers, 1,240 coaches, 485 gigs and taxed carts, 769 waggons, 2,924 carts and drays, and 764 horses.  – Leigh’s new picture of London: or A view of the political, religious, medical, literary, municipal, commercial, and moral state of the British metropolis (Google eBook), 1827, p. 251

Then imagine the animal droppings. I have not the mathematical wherewithal to calculate how much manure and urine these vast numbers of animals traversing London’s streets would generate on an average day, but I do know this: when a horse feels the need to relieve itself, it does so on the spot, releasing the end result of its digestion in a most spectacular fashion.

London, detail of Islington toll gate

And thus London’s streets were littered with dung. Not only did horses generously contribute their feces to London’s throroughfares, but so did the vast number of feral dogs and cats roaming the streets, and the cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, and fowl that were driven to London’s markets. Add on a hot summer’s day the smell of slops that were carelessly tossed out of windows, and the stench of contaminated water, backed-up sewers, over-filled privies, and rotting garbage, and you get the drift. The assault on one’s olfactory nerves must have been overpowering.

The rich had a choice – they left London in droves at the end of the Season to wile away the summer on their country estates. But those who were left behind had to suffer the fetid stench of thousands of evacuations that cooked in the heat and turned into gaseous rot. (I traveled through a similar malodorous area when driving past the slums of Jakarta one summer.)

Streetsweeper assists a lady crossing the street, 1818, after Vernet. Image @Wikimedia.

Rain showers did not help much to relieve the situation. By 1841, when the metropolis was vastly larger, Henry Mayhew calculated that the refuse from butchers that washed into rain water approximated 24,000,000,000 gallons per annum. As for dung, let’s face it, wet poo sticks like glue, and once the offending substance adhered to boots and shoes, the unfortunate wearer would trod the vile stuff into carriages and on door stoops, which is why boot scrapers were essential.

Sunny weather was not much more helpful, for when poo baked and dried on dusty streets, it tended to crumble and turn into dust. A brisk wind would blow odiforous grit under door crevaces and through open windows, landing on furniture, floors, curtains, rugs, and hanging laundry. A person walking along the streets on a blustery day, would have it blown onto their clothes and in their hair. (Let’s not even imagine how much of these offensive granules landed on their faces and inside their mouths and noses! Achoo!)

Carle Vernet, detail of a gust of wind

As for hygienic habits, if English Regency gentlemen felt comfortable urinating in chamberpots in the diningroom after dinner in full view of their companions, one can imagine that they thought nothing of relieving themselves in back alleys. And where were the poor urchins who lived on the streets supposed to “go”? Or the individuals crammed into overcrowded tenements who shared a common privy with hundreds of others and who, due to pressing circumstances, could NOT wait?

If peeing in front of others (left) near food stuffs inside one's home was permissable, one can only imagine the habits of this gentleman outside of a tavern.

There were attempts to combat these continual eliminations and excretions by animals and humans, which will be discussed in the next Fawlty Regency London post. Until next time, gentle reader, I am signing off. I hope I have not offended your tender sensibilities (or activated your gag reflexes) too much. Part 2 of this fascinating series will discuss The Removers, or those who worked tirelessly to keep London smelling as fresh as a daisy (well, at least like day old cat litter).

For those who are equally as fascinated with topics of an earthy nature as I am, here’s another post: Urea, a 17th & 18th Spot Remover, or Pee as a Cleansing Agent

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Posted in 19th Century England, jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency London, Regency World | Tagged 19th c. London streets | 13 Comments

13 Responses

  1. on March 30, 2011 at 15:31 Melody

    Oh my god! This must have been terrible but I had never imagined that dung could be so interesting!


  2. on March 30, 2011 at 16:17 Jean | Delightful Repast

    Well, Vic, you’ve done it again–pulled the rose-colored glasses right off of my face! I should thank you for these doses of reality that make me more appreciative of the times in which we live. But can I hold onto my illusions about the glories of London in the 1960s?


  3. on March 30, 2011 at 17:47 Janeite Deb

    Pugh!


  4. on March 30, 2011 at 20:14 Martha

    Eye opening. Truly. Oh my.

    I’ve often wondered about those men with the chamber pots- people’s sensibilities and expectations were certainly different than today in those regards!

    Thanks for another, um, interesting post!


  5. on March 30, 2011 at 21:17 Karen Field

    Wow, you certainly did removed some of the romance I have about a time long ago. That was fascinating. My best comparison that I can come up with is Williamsburg, Va, because it tries to give visitors the actual feel of 1775 or so. If they made it totally realistic, they’d have to import the actual smells. There are a few coaches that cover the streets so there is just a tiny scent but you usually don’t notice it. I’ll have to try to remember that the next time I go.

    I’ve also been given to understand that people didn’t drink water because they thought it was unhealthy. I’ve always thought that was silly but, given your post above, I’m rethinking that. How many diseases and deaths happened because of the contaminated water? Yuck, says the woman drinking her water from a bottle!

    Excellent post!


  6. on March 30, 2011 at 22:04 gail m.

    For a really great descripton of the pooy situation in London and England I can suggest a great book,At Home, by Bill Bryson. If you can believe it, he makes the above seem mild. yuk!


  7. on March 31, 2011 at 03:32 Shannon Winslow

    No indoor plumbing or proper sewer systems, piles of manure littering the streets, primitive medical care, one woman in three dying in childbirth – plenty of reasons we don’t really want to live in Regency England. I prefer the sanitized and romanticized version, even though I know it’s a fairy tale.


  8. on March 31, 2011 at 08:27 Lanternativa

    A very good article. Need more like this one.


  9. on March 31, 2011 at 10:44 Heloise

    Indeed, it was very eye opening! But, yet, a very good article… I confess I laughted more than once!
    Although, for my own sake, I´ll keep the Austen version of all of that! ;)


  10. on March 31, 2011 at 14:02 bethtrissel

    What a super post. The stench must have been unimaginable and I live on a farm. Thanks for all the great info. You have a wonderful blog.


  11. on March 31, 2011 at 15:01 Anna

    Blimey, Jane Austen really did paint a pretty picture of Georgian England in her novels! We hardly ever get to imagine all this stuff, which was certainly commonplace and normal of her day. I don’t want to think about those particles flying in the air… ugh!


  12. on April 1, 2011 at 12:38 Lynn

    Well, that does sound pretty bad & does explain why the upper crust left town! I have a question – how did they take care of their teeth? I have watched “Lost in Austen” abit & the salt-birch twigs-chalk thing was brought up for dental care… how did that work out???? Thanks for all the information!


  13. on January 7, 2013 at 22:58 Nikki E.

    Awesome post! Do you have any info on the last picture – the “peeing in the dining room” one? I saw it in a presentation but cannot remember the artist or title. Thank you!!



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