| Event type: | Outing |
| Date: | 6th May 2025 |
| Time: | 8:30 am |
| Group: | Holidays & Outings |
| Organiser: | |
| Cost: | £70 |
| Booking: | Note that booking is required. |
This is the story of the Great Stink with a coach tour, a Thames Cruise, and a visit to Bazalgette's Cathedral of Sewage to see the Crossness Engines. The day includes a Blue Badge Tour Guide, morning coffee, a Thames Cruise from Westminster to Greenwich, entry to the Cathedral of Sewage and afternoon refreshments. You will need to bring a packed lunch.
At the Great Exhibition of 1851 the new flush loo was a big hit - the bifold doors or kitchen island of the Victorian age. There was a big problem though. You could flush the waste from. your house but without a sewage removal and treatment infrastructure the waste ended up in London's rivers. During the hot summer of 1858 the amount of human waste being flushed directly into the River Thames became a national scandal. Literally. a great stink! Something had to be done. That something would be a massive civil engineering project led by Sir Joseph Bazalgette. The Thames was pushed back creating new Embankments to accommodate massive intercepting sewers that would carry London's waste to the East, to two extraordinary Cathedrals of Sewage. One has survived and has been saved by a dedicated team of volunteer
Photo courtesy of City and Villages
- The coach will leave Canterbury Bus Station at 8:30am, returning (traffic willing) about 6:30pm
- Walking required: moderate (800 yards)
- Note that booking is required and it is for members only
- Please note that this outing is now fully booked but we usually do have some people with places who need to drop out at short notice so there is always a chance of getting a place if you join the waiting list here