A RIVER RUNS PUTRID: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London sweltered in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that scorched the metropolis. An even more repellent force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial effluents had transformed London's lifeblood into a stench. The stench was oppressive, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and infused

The year eight hundred forty-five AD. A chill wind whistled across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent carrying salt and fear. The Norsemen were amongst us, a stormy swarm of warriors seeking plunder. Their longships, like serpents, sliced through the waters, their flags billowing in the wind. A city once proud now trembled beneath the shad