A series celebrating the often-overlooked Victorian Stink Pipe.
These Stink Pipes are street furniture that we have all walked past thousands of times, and most probably never noticed or even given a second thought to. However, they are evidence of a great piece of Victorian infrastructure that we all still use every day.
Most Stink Pipes date back to 1858, a period of time in London now historically referred to as the Great Stink. At the time there was no proper centralised sewage management in London and as a result the Thames was full of human waste, industrial waste, and animal carcasses.
So in 1858 Joseph Bazalgette was commissioned to design and build a brand new sewage system network throughout London. This system is still in use today.
The Stink Pipes that this cache series celebrates are massive hollow iron pipes that dispose of the lethal and highly flammabale gases that build up in the sewage pipes that run below our city. They tend to follow the path of the main sewer pipes below the pavements, and they are often quite ornate works of art.
Once you know about Stink Pipes you will spot them everywhere. Usually painted green, these heavy iron pipes might look like a lamp post at first glance, but there is no light at the top, just a hole open to the sky to vent the noxious gasses from the sewer below.
PLEASE REPLACE THE CACHE EXACTLY AS FOUND