A closer look

Long before modern indoor plumbing revolutionized urban living, London relied on massive underground cesspits to collect human waste. Gong farmers were the unfortunate laborers hired to work strictly under the cover of darkness, climbing waist-deep into these toxic pits to shovel out the excrement by hand. They were well-paid due to the incredibly hazardous and nauseating nature of the work, but they were socially ostracized and frequently suffered from fatal diseases.