Filthy Cities – Wiffy Sniffy London City

Last weeks edition of the Radio Times included a postcard sized scratch-and-sniff card  to accompany the latest series Filthy Cities.

By scratching the card viewers are able to experience life like aromas from London sewers, a New York tannery and “muddy” Paris – three cities featured in the series on BBC 2

For those who weren’t able to pick up a copy the cards are availble from public libraries while stocks last – find your nearest library here

Filthy London

Beginning this new three-part series on the histories of three of the world’s leading modern cities, Dan Snow looked at the squalor of medieval London.

The stench and filth in the streets was unimaginable, consisting of a ripe cocktail of mud, dung, urine and excrement. Added to this repulsive waste were the foul chemicals from leather- tanning factories and the putrid run-off from brewers, butchers and fishmongers. The only way to get through these open sewers was to walk on raised wooden overshoes, like miniature stilts.

Dan Snow has always been an hands-on historian, but there are plenty of occasions in this vivid programme when he must have wished that he had stayed in the library. He slaughters a pig, rakes muck and retches at the sight of raw sewage.

Heres a clip:

Future episodes of Filthy cities will feature Niffy New York and Pongy Paris.