Rookeries or Tom-all-alones were slums.
Repeated epidemics of Cholera, Typhus and
even the Black Plague should be adequate
evidence for our imagination, but if that
isn't enough, Henry Mayhew pointed out
that polluted water from the Thames was
allowed, once a week, into the Rookery
ditches to provide a place used in common
for sewage as well as drinking water.