As if by magic you have arrived at the top of your staircase at home. In fact you have gone up there to get a pair of socks because your feet are cold. However before going to your bedroom you notice something strange; someone seems to have left 2 Chapsticks® and a sanitary towel on the top of the banisters. Well the Chapsticks are to give you the name Chadwick and the sanitary towel is to help you remember the name of his famous report: The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population. The year? Well, it is 1842. There are 2 Chapsticks (which give you the number 2) double them (gives you a 4) and double again (to give you an 8) – 248, reading right to left gives you the year 1842!
Now you need to go into your bedroom which is 6 steps away. (Each step represents 1 year to add on. How do you remember that it is 6 steps away? – well, 6 is clearly a number missing from the 842 sequence.) That takes you to the year 1848. Your socks are kept in a chest of drawers which has a mirror hanging above it. Before you open the sock drawer you notice something mildly unpleasant about the mirror. First of all it is facing the wall but more disconcertingly it has a pubic hair stuck to the back of it! What can it mean? Well a pubic hair represents Public Health and so we are in fact staring at the Public Health Act 1848.
Now it is not the nicest thing to look at so you decide to turn the mirror to face the right way. But as you manoeuvre it round you realise it is covered in grey poo. Yuck! This is a symptom of cholera and therefor represents a cholera epidemic. Turning the mirror round adds another year onto the date – 1849 and corresponds to the second big cholera outbreak 1848-9.
Now you must wash your hands before putting your socks on. So a trip to the bathroom is called for. It is 4 steps into your on-suite bathroom which takes you to 1853. (How do you remember it is 4 steps? Practice the memory journey!) Now you reach for the soap which is on a shelf next to the sink. The soap has some Blu Tack® on it which falls off as you get there. The Blu Tack represents tax; it has fallen off to remind you the tax on soap ended this year.
Unfortunately as you put soap on your hands you manage to get rather a lot of grey poo on the soap which tells you that 1853 was another cholera epidemic.
The sink is only one step away (1854). On the cold tap there is a pile of snow and on the hot tap is a broad bean. Why? Because 1854 is the year John Snow proved that cholera was in the water and he removed the handle of the Broad St. pump to save lives.
I know, it’s a lot to take in so let’s recap. You start in 1842 at the top of the stairs: 2 Chapstick and a sanitary towel give you Chadwick’s Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population. Six steps to the bedroom takes you to 1848 and the pubic hair on the back of the mirror – the 1st Public Health Act. Turning the mirror round gives you the year 1849 and a lot of grey poo – a cholera epidemic. You take 4 steps to the soap – 1853 – the Blu Tack falls off as the tax on soap is ended. But you get more grey poo on it so another cholera epidemic starts this year. One step to the sink, 1854, takes you to the Broad St pump and the snow reminds of the famous doctor John Snow.
Now we must press on! Hands now clean you return to the sock drawer (4 steps back of course – 1858) and you open the drawer. But dear, oh dear, what is that smell? It stinks! These socks are filthy and must have been festering in there for months. It can only mean one thing – the Great Stink of 1858! Part 2 – 1858-1876 to follow shortly.
So far we have learnt these key facts:
- 1842 – Chadwick’s Report into the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population;
- 1848 – 1st Public Health Act;
- 1848-9 – 2nd cholera epidemic;
- 1853 – Tax on soap ends;
- 1853-4 – 3rd cholera epidemic;
- 1854 – John Snow proves the link between cholera and water at the Broad St. pump;
- 1858 – The Great Stink.
The History Palace 