This even predates the industrial revolution. Part of the reason why English joinery was so advanced is that they cut down all the trees everywhere. Consequen

This even predates the industrial revolution. Part of the reason why English joinery was so advanced is that they cut down all the trees everywhere. Consequently, they were left with tiny trees which grew quickly and had to make up for that with advanced joinery. As for the Thames, that was terrible even as far back as Shakespeare (presumably even further back than that).