I don't think that's correct, most plumbing + municipal sewage in London was built in the mid 1800s, whereas hat-wearing persisted well into the mid 1900s.

Hat-wearing might have become fashion. Not that much different from a watch having become fashion, while the functionality of a watch and added value is not that much as it used to be.

Wearing a watch has become much less common, though!

And, aside, I don’t get it at all! There’s a reason humanity initially switched from pocket watches to wrist watches! Why would you want to go back?!

(I <3 my Pebble)

I don't wear a watch anymore because I am already required to carry a phone and the phone has every possible function the watch would have. What is the value in the watch at that point? Since I do not check the time that often (there are three clocks on computer desktops/menubars plus a wall clocks in eyesight of me right now) there is little value in having the added convenience of the wrist over the pocket for checking time.

The pocket watch (cell phone) is very popular in my circles.

In the Netherlands this topic cannot be mentioned in normal conversation, it gets ridiculed, it could never have happened. But when people from Russia talk about this, it is often with a bit of laughter about Western Europe and its idea of high culture.

This too seems like a very polarized discussion where we may never know to what extent it was true :)

What are you on about? It's not like this comes up in regular conversation. Us Dutch are perfectly aware of times were people wore hats. My father even scolded me, when I forgot to take my cap off at a funeral.

Into the Fleet river? Which literally runs down the middle of Fleet Street (hence it's name). It's still there, under the road in a tunnel that still feeds the Thames.

Outhouses?