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Feast Your Eyes: Hunting Fatbergs Beneath the City

In London, Thames Water's chief flusher, Rob Smith, leads a guided tour of the city's bowels.

Nicola Twilley
By Nicola TwilleyJan 07, 2011
Nicola Twilley
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In this video, Thames Water's chief flusher Rob Smith leads journalists from The Guardian on a guided tour of London's bowels in search of "fatbergs"—creamy yellow blockages built of congealed illegally dumped cooking oil and flushed wet wipes.

The 8-minute video is heavy on the gross-out factor, but also offers a unique perspective on the patterns and peculiarities of urban digestion. After all, as I've written elsewhere, "If the ways in which a city is supplied with food are often hard to visualize, the infrastructure through which that food, transformed into metabolic excretions, is once again removed are usually even better hidden"—which makes this video required viewing for anyone interested in food and the city.

sewagesewersfeast your eyesthames waterfatbergscooking oilwet wipescitiesfood and drink

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