Tuesday 28 October 2014

Stench pipe

Earl de Grey, Castle Street

Civilisation is the distance that man has placed between himself and his own excreta.” 
― Brian Aldiss 

There was a time, not so very long ago, when Hull was notorious for its distinctive stench. Not the all pervading pong of rotten fish that would drift across town from time to time, no this was something more down-to-earth. Sewage. Yup there was no denying that various points in town, notably Prospect Street, came with the odour of ordure. The drains it seems lacked gradient and we were, in the words of Churchill, unable to flush our own sewers. Step up, after much complaining, the water company and a big, and I do mean big, new drain and suddenly town smells as sweet as diesel fumes. Semper melior as they are wont to say round here.

3 comments:

  1. Not a smell you want to deal with!

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  2. "As sweet as diesel fumes." That's an improvement.

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  3. Also parrots. You don't see as many around as you once did, though there's one residing on the rat's tail end of Springbank West. Whether Hull's working women have decamped there too from Waterhouse Lane, I don't know.

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