edinburgh52 Gardy Loo Waste water today flows down external pipes into underground sewers. Not so long ago, the system was less hygienic. In the evenings the shout 'gardy loo' (from the French for 'watch out for the water') could be heard as shutters were opened and chamber pots emptied into the streets and closes. Writing in 1754, Edward Burt described how 'I was forced to hide my Head between the Sheets, for the Smell of the Filth, thrown out by the Neighbors came pouring into the room to such a Degree, I was almost poisoned with the Stench'. Please note the external sewer pipes. Had our little crew walked down this close two centuries earlier, we might have gotten a very different Edinburgh experience. That's why Edinburgh was once called 'Auld Reekie'.