sanitary nightmares
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The Festival of Grime Collection #5
Another collection of pre-carnival floats. Notice how, alongside various insects, they also celebrated the pig. At risk of sounding condescending to our dear readers, it is no coincidence that they also chose a pig to represent their struggle for survival in an age when making it past the age of five was a miracle. At…
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Cosmetic Surgery in the Victorian Era Collection #2
We want to return to the cosmetic surgeons of the Victorian era. Photograph #4 is of Malcolm O’shea who was a butcher from Halifax. In his spare time, and to make ends meet, he was also a butcher of a very different kind. On the surface, the room he’s standing in looks like a normal…
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The Festival of Grime Collection #2
Some more delightful images from the Festival of Grime for you. The costumes of the moth children in photograph #4 and the stick insect in photograph #7 are my personal favourites. However, the carnival float of an Indian elephant in photograph #8 is also impressive. Such a rig would have taken many hours of hard…
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The Big Smoke Collection #1
As the Industrial Revolution steamrolled ahead, London’s microclimate became increasingly unbearable for the couple of million people living there. The year 1876 was particularly gruelling. From a sanitary viewpoint, civilisation was still wearing nappies. The sewerage system was minimal, the streets were littered with rotten vegetables alongside dead animals and birds, and people’s waste could…
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