Episode 1 of 2

Tabling of the Metropolis Local Management Amendment Bill

When: 15 June 1858
Where: Houses of Parliament
Part of: The Great Stink forces Parliament to pass the London sewage bill

Disraeli tabled the Metropolis Local Management Amendment Bill on 15 June 1858, denouncing the Thames during the opening debate on the proposed amendment to the 1855 Act.

On 15 June 1858 Disraeli tabled the Metropolis Local Management Amendment Bill, a proposed amendment to the 1855 Act. In the opening debate he called the Thames a Stygian pool, reeking with ineffable and intolerable horrors. The bill's terms favoured Bazalgette's original 1856 plan and overcame Hall's objection to it. In the same year Parliament passed an Enabling Act, despite the colossal expense of the project, after which Bazalgette's proposals began to be implemented.

Sources

Great Stink Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-15
Joseph Bazalgette Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-14

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.