Dirty Old London Quotes

“Transport costs increased as the city grew, making the sale of mud less and less profitable; competition in the form of guano and chemical fertilisers undermined sales further.”
― Lee Jackson, Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth

“Ashes had always had some value to farmers as fertiliser,”
― Lee Jackson, Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth

“Dustmen, employed by private contractors, were in no sense public servants, or part of a ‘public sector’ – a concept which barely belongs to the Victorian era.”
― Lee Jackson, Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth

“Before taking his leave of a premises, the dustman would request either beer or a tip for his trouble, quaintly known in the trade as ‘sparrows’.”
― Lee Jackson, Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth

“Filth implied social and domestic disorder; and, when discovered in the home, inculcated immoral habits – for it was widely agreed that working men, faced with poor housekeeping, sought refuge in the glittering comforts of the gin palace.”
― Lee Jackson, Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth

“Between 1801 and 1901, the population of London soared from one million to over six million.”
― Lee Jackson, Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth

“London was the heart of the greatest empire ever known; a financial and mercantile hub for the world; but it was also infamously filthy.”
― Lee Jackson, Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth