The Barking Stink


Evocative public exhibition outside the National Theatre as part of the Totally Thames festival looking at the smells of Barking.

Organised by Valence House Museum it looked at 150 years of the smells of Barking. Although it was just a series of information boards they set the story out really well with just enough information. It went through the industries of the area and what they might have smelt like. Barking was particularly smelly as it was downwind of central London and a lot of London waste ended up there.

I’d not realised what a big fishing fleet Barking had and I learned about industries I’d never come across before such as the annual ice harvest after landowners in the area flooded their land then harvested the ice that formed. Also the import of bird poo from Peru for fertilizer as well as manure from the city being shipped to Barking to be used in the market gardens nearby.

Closes 5 October 2019

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