Guess what wild animal was loose in Birmingham's sewers in 1899

I was set to guess: alligator.

I think most people were, that or a crocodile. I didn't, but that's only because I'd just clicked on a link that said "Lion on the loose."

I was thinking a childhood neighbor lady, Mrs. Armitage.

Didn't she get shanked?

Saying it was a giant rat wouldn't be so wrong. The are still in there I bet.

If there were were any giant rats, they probably all fucked off to Redditch once they got a whiff of a giant puss cat.

I'm off topic, except for the century. Public Broadcasting (PBS) is showing a once a week series of an hour docudrama called Victorian Slum House. I thought I saw a 2016 copyright at the end with the credits? Has this been popular in England? It started with the 1860's and on the third week is up to the 1880's. There was a depression starting in the 1870's, and the factories moved more work into mini sweatshops in the slum house to avoid the new child labor laws in the more formal factories. All very interesting. As part of the authenticity the docudrama managed to find two Jewish families that had family in London at that time, perhaps, to add to a personal touch of this modern family learning how their ancestors had a daily struggle for survival. In my opinion, many Americans would not be interested to see Jewish families in this docudrama, if the locale was somewhere in the U.S.. Not hostile, just disinterested, in my opinion. I applaud the British for their apparent willingness to learn history without a slant that is 100% self-congratulatory, a la many Hollywood westerns.