History is hard sometimes, when all you have are dates and events to remember. It helps to have context. Montessori schools build a lot of history and social science on the concept of the needs of people. While the need for electronics excites many of my students, another fundamental need is for sanitation.
RJ Evans has a wonderful post, full of excellent photography that will go a long way toward capturing the imagination, which encapsulates the history of London by looking at the evolution of the River Fleet – from a “clear and sparkling” stream in medieval times, to a chartered, elegant, underground sewer system built by excellent, Victorian engineers that still functions today.
Everything is in place, thanks to the ingenuity of the Victorian engineers, to ensure that the Fleet is confined to these tunnels. Yet it was not always like that. If we travel back a few centuries we find a different story altogether – one which is not without its own pathos if such an emotion can be felt for a river.
– Evans, 2011: The Fleet – London’s Underground River in Kuriositas.