NLA Model Talk: Flushing the First Megacity

How the Victorian fight against dirt and disease created the modern sewer system and defined the layout of London’s riverfront today.

In the mid-19th century, London’s rapid expansion into the world’s first megacity led to a sanitation crisis that culminated in the notorious ‘Great Stink’ of 1858. This talk examines the solution—a massive new sewer network that did more than just clean the Thames; it redefined the city.

We will travel the length of London of the 1860s and 70s to discover how Joseph Bazalgette’s cutting-edge system extended across subterranean London, diverting waste to mammoth steam-powered pumping stations and reclaiming land from the river to create the Victoria, Albert, and Chelsea Embankments.

The talk will conclude with a look at Crossness Pumping Station, a Grade I-listed "palace of iron and steam" built to express a uniquely Victorian conviction: that public health, civic ambition, and beauty should stand together for the common good.

Attendees will explore how this masterpiece of the age was designed not just to pump sewage, but to celebrate the arrival of the modern world. We will look at how its bold engineering and magnificent design, which visitors can still marvel at today, offer a vital case study in how infrastructure underpins the life of the 21st-century city.

Image credit: Crossness Pumping Station