In 2017, a monster lurked beneath London
Hiding out in the sewers and growing to an unprecedented size, the monster was revealed by Thames Water to be a 250-metre-long and 130-tonne fatberg that ultimately took months and £1 million to defeat.
It wasn’t long before newspapers were littered with headlines like ‘TOTAL MONSTER’: FATBERG BLOCKS LONDON SEWAGE SYSTEM’ and, eventually, ‘VICTORY DECLARED’ OVER 130 TONNE WHITECHAPEL FATBERG’. The foul beast, which was the grisly result of pouring grease down the drains and flushing rubbish like wet wipes and nappies down the loo, became an international spectacle.
This wasn’t London’s first run-in with a fatberg. In fact, you’ll find London mentioned under Wikipedia’s ‘Notable Fatbergs’ subhead more times than any other city in the world. This is largely due to our ageing Victorian sewage system which faced fatberg-induced disruption in 2013, 2014 and 2015 before our monster arrived.
And it wasn’t the city’s last either, another – weighing more than an elephant – was found and removed from the sewers below Cadogan Place in 2020 and a “huge and disgusting” fatberg reportedly the same weight as a small bungalow was found under Canary Wharf in 2021. But, to be fair to London, we aren’t responsible for the UK’s largest fatberg. That title belongs to Liverpool, whose 2019 fatberg weighed in at a colossal 400 tonnes.
The Whitechapel fatberg was the largest London has ever come up against and, despite the gross factor, it became a cult curiosity – people were completely fascinated by it. A fatberg documentary was made and so was a dystopian musical, which centred around the concept of a fatberg-fuelled future. A sample of it was even displayed at the Museum of London in 2018, becoming one of their most popular exhibits according to its curator Vycki Sparkes.
It’s now been immortalised with a memorial manhole cover outside Whitechapel station, so if you want to pay your respects, you know where to go.
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