Hygiene got worse before it got better.
John Leech/Wikimedia Commons
John Leech/Wikimedia Commons
The era saw significant improvements in cleanliness and hygiene, but the sad reality is that these advancements were made necessary by just how bad conditions had been previously.
The Great Stink of 1858 was, true to its name, a tremendously smelly period in London’s history, as untreated human waste and industrial runoff contributed to truly horrifying conditions along the River Thames. Dr. John Snow’s research would later prove that contaminated water was to blame for the era’s many cholera outbreaks.