A RIVER RUNS PUTRID: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

The city of London sweltered in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that baked the metropolis. An even more unpleasant force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial waste had transformed London's lifeblood into a stench. The stench was overwhelming, a miasma that here clung to every cobblestone and pervade

The year eight hundred forty-five AD. A chill wind blasted across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent emanating from salt and fear. The Norsemen had arrived, a stormy swarm of warriors seeking glory. Their longships, like beasts of the north, sliced through the waters, their banners billowing in the wind. A city once confident now trembled