Two Centuries of Stink: Smelling Mapping Widnes Past and Present

Intriguing aromas have long been a feature of life in Widnes. With the arrival of the chemical industry in the 19th century, the town changed beyond all recognition, gaining a reputation as having the deeply unpleasant “Widnes Odour”.

With funding from Arts Council England, Catalyst commissioned world-renowned olfactory artist and designer Kate McLean, who has spearheaded the practices of ‘smell-walking’ and ‘smell-scaping’, to work with our collection and local community to explore the smells, scents, and stinks of Widnes from the 19th century up to the present day turning two centuries of stink into visual and sensory form for the first time.

Beginning in Catalyst’s archives, we searched historic records for descriptions of smell. We then asked people in the community what smells they, or their families remembered, and invited them to plot these onto a map. Finally, in May 2021 we facilitated a series of ‘smell walks’ where local people collected ‘nose first’ data to describe the smell Widnes in the present.

This information has been translated into 8 Widnes smells to sniff, supported by documentation from Catalyst’s archives and smell walks, and an animated smell map showing how the various smells, scents, whiffs, and pongs of Widnes have changed over time.

The exhibition will remain at Catalyst until Sunday 26th September.