A RIVER RUNS PUTRID: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London breathed in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that parched the metropolis. An even more unpleasant force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial effluents had transformed London's lifeblood into a foul-smelling mire. The stench was overwhelming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone

The year the year of our Lord eight hundred and forty-five AD. A chill wind whistled across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent carrying salt and fear. The Norsemen had arrived, a stormy swarm of warriors seeking plunder. Their longships, like prowling predators, sliced through the waters, their standards waving in the wind. A city once pea