Does anyone know how much night soil the average family in 18th century London produced, and how was it removed?

Anon	I don't know how much.. but from history lessons at school I do know that they just chucked 'night soil' out of the window into the street. Feb 20 02, 11:12 AM

Moleman

It would be in proportion to their diet. I believe there were open sewers down the middle of some roads in which people would dispose of their full buckets. Feb 20 02, 1:30 PM

Jeeves

Night soil (human excretement) was probably produced in similar amounts to a family today. Most of it was disposed of via a series of gulleys and small streams that took it to the nearest river. In summer time the smell was very strong and it could pollute sources of drinking water causing outbreaks of typhoid etc. In the middle of the 19th century a combination of tides and wind caused a mass of raw sewage that was floating down the Thames to come to a halt outside the Houses of Parliament. It stayed for several days and as a result of the 'Big Stink', as it was called, Parliament passed laws requiring sewerage systems to be built. Feb 20 02, 1:35 PM

Demios

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned 'Gardy loo!' This was the cry given by Edinburgh housewives and servants just prior to emptying the contents of the slop-pail out of the window into the street below. It is a corruption of the French - 'Gare de l'eau!' - Beware of the water! Some water! Feb 22 02, 2:33 PM

The Happy Pig

I think I might be able to assist the Professor. 'Much of London's sewage, even in the most salubrious areas accumulated in cesspits under the houses, their contents being removed by scavengers or night soil workers who would trundle the refuse out in the dark hours to hideous middens or market gardens. But often the cesspits filled up and became cesslakes, impregnating the cellars of the houses with filth. If such a large house were abandoned it might become inhabited by the most desperate of all London dwellers, who spent their lives in low, unlit basements with sewage seeping through the walls' - from 'The Making of Modern London' Feb 22 02, 2:36 PM

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