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Ick-factor: London fatberg goes from sewer to museum

London’s newest museum attraction is greasy, smelly — and a glimpse at the hidden underside of urban life.
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The Museum of London is displaying part of a 130 metric-ton fatberg that was blasted out of a city sewer last year. (Photo by The Associated Press)

London’s newest museum attraction is greasy, smelly — and a glimpse at the hidden underside of urban life.

The Museum of London is displaying part of a 130 metric-ton (143 U.S.-ton) fatberg that was blasted out of a city sewer last year.

It took sewage workers weeks to dislodge the 250-meter-long (820-foot-long) mass of oil, fat, diapers and baby wipes from beneath the city’s East End.

The museum has preserved an air-dried chunk, about the size of a shoebox, whose mottled consistency a curator likens to parmesan crossed with moon rock.

Curator Vyki Sparkes said Thursday that the fatberg is “disgusting and fascinating. And that’s what’s been great to work with. It has this impact on people.”

The fatberg is on display from Friday until July 1. Admission is free.