Dan Snow investigates the filthiest cities of London, now 2000 years old, since every street was built upon layers of history. He visits specific areas where the epidemic was at its worst, where failed medicinal cures were in practice, and other filthy experiments that the authorities of London had to deal with.

How and when London became a clean city, is the question that Dan tries to answer. There was only a single line for traffic, and the population was increasing by 500% in 2 centuries. The Tower of London is one of the oldest architecture built to defend London from attack by the Normans.

Being able to prosper from trades coming through on ships over the Thames, people were getting paid with gold on the streets. People on the streets who couldn’t afford such luxuries began to leave remains of food on the streets. Dan Snow creates an experiment to experience and study what life on the ground would have been like with rotten food being spread by people’s feet.

Even the sewers still contain remains of people’s rubbish from 200 years ago, and the poor historian has to test the contents to determine what pathogens existed, and continue to exist but in a more contained area.

Image provided by Battle Castle

Sourced: klidstone1970

Curated by: @KatherineNader, an online editor at Arbitrage Magazine, and author of The Deadly Mark. She is a student of Biology, English, and Professional Writing at the University of Toronto.