The Stench & Perfume of Old Torquay
When we look at a picture of Victorian Torquay there’s one thing that we can’t see. That’s what the town actually smelled like. And it stank. Kevin Dixon gives us a whiff of the lost scents of our seaside town.
T
he smell would have hit you instantly- a mixture of neighbouring houses. There was also a water tank at animal dung, human waste, body odour, coal and Torre, two in St Marychurch, two in Torwood and a wood smoke. While this is true of other Victorian towns, spring at the Braddons. While the availability of water Torquay experienced exceptional growth, much of which, increased with the construction of Chapel Hill reservoir in the early days, was crammed into a narrow valley. In in 1856 and a second reservoir in the Warberries in 1872, 1800 there were only around 800 people in Torquay; by there was still restricted access for many. 1841 the population had risen to 5,982; a decade later to Then there was body odour. It was common to go for 11,474; and by 1901 had reached 33,625. weeks without washing the body, though hands, feet and First of all, there was the ever-present coal and wood faces were still washed regularly. Men and women with smoke. Every home and business needed energy and money covered any unpleasantness with perfume; it wasn’t had to burn something; the result would be soot and the until 1888 that we saw the invention of the first successful smoke of hundreds of fires saturating the sky. brand of commercial deodorant called ‘Mum’ (believed to There would be horses everywhere drawing coaches have derived from “Mum’s the word” indicating keeping and flatbed delivery carts. something quiet). They worked all day and A real challenge was This was a town claiming to be the were constantly hungry and the increasing amounts of richest in England where women thirsty. With few places to human waste. Every home in sumptuous flowing gowns and dispose of animal waste, men in tailored suits carved a path had a cesspool. Ideally this it was found all over the was located in the back through people dressed in rags. streets. There were no public garden away from the house, toilets and the river Fleet was effectively an open sewer - it but in more congested areas it was in the basement. was also a source of drinking water. Perhaps surprisingly, Cesspools were built to be porous so the liquid part of the everyday household waste wasn’t a great problem. Refuse waste could seep away into the ground - and often into was valuable and as much as possible was recycled, dustthe nearby river Fleet. ‘Night soil men’ then removed the yards being driven by profit rather than any legislation or residue. Torquay was a deeply divided society with the public health concerns. rich living in the villas on the hills while the poor lived in Today we take the availability of water for granted deep valleys. Consequently, the smell could often inform but it was once far less accessible, for both washing and you of your location – the affluent Warberries or working drinking. At first Torquay derived its water from springs, class Torre. wells and rainwater tanks, and from 1826, the Palk When the Canadian visitor Isabella Cowen visited in Water Works. Water was then collected at a reservoir 1892 she recorded, “I have seen more luxury since being at Ellacombe, fed by its own springs, which supplied in Torquay than in all my previous life.” This was a town
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24 | June/July 2021
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