Why is KL by far Westeros's crappiest city?

[TheWitch]

It's a shame because I think there's real symbolism around it and that's really been lost in the show. The filth and squalor represent the seediness and treachery of the ruling classes in the Red Keep. KL in the show is built from stone and although is dirty, doesn't have the same vibe. The climate is much hotter than it is in the books and you don't get that same feel of, dirt and disgust.

[Peter George Stewart]

It's a shame because I think there's real symbolism around it and that's really been lost in the show. The filth and squalor represent the seediness and treachery of the ruling classes in the Red Keep. KL in the show is built from stone and although is dirty, doesn't have the same vibe. The climate is much hotter than it is in the books and you don't get that same feel of, dirt and disgust.

I got a sense of a hot place from the books, in fact heat is one of the main causes of stink, given other pre-requisites.

Incidentally, I think the guy who said mediaeval dirt is largely a myth is right - in my understanding, reading about history, for example mediaeval London was brightly painted (mostly white) and relatively clean, not grim and grey as we usually think of mediaeval (rather like ancient statues were all gaily painted, not blank featureless gray like they are in museums). Modern sanitation is modern sanitation, and there's not been anything quite like it before (although some cultures have come close, including even some very ancient ones), but in terms of how clean things could be kept without that, mediaeval times were better than, say, Victorian London, until the sewers were upgraded.

[Fat Trell]

Medieval hygiene(the lack of) is often overstated. Southern Europe largely continued Roman practices of bathing, albeit lacking some Roman opulence. Hand washing was still prevalent most everywhere. The Northern Europeans looked down upon bathing somewhat, but even that was mainly the lower classes. The common perceptions of the filthiness of that time is more closely related to the Early Modern Period.

[OnlyOne]

It was still built by Targs, making it very difficult to rule. Westerosi are perfect. For the Seven!

Keep yelling that song. Perhaps Martin will listen...but I doubt it. Lol

[Ocelot]

KL in the show is filmed in the gorgeous Croatian city of Dubrovnik, which alone makes it quite different than the books. Also, Dubrovnik has a Mediterranean climate, meaning mild, snow-free winters, whereas at the end of ADwD Kevan observes that KL is cold and full of snow and ice. So TV!KL is much nicer than Book!KL.

[planetos]

Urban sprawl of King's Landing, once empty area dominated by farms and towns, that once had no whatever reason to have a big city,, probably didn't have that much resource benefit too because the Andals kingdoms have existed for thousands of years but not a single one of them wants a city there. And in all of the sudden grew in importance because it's Ageon's landing site and he wants a capital there and a big one, and thus people from surrounding region move there due to it's status and economic potential. King's Landing is a young city, now populated by 500,000 people in 300 year which is quiet fast considering the era they're in, but despite having a capital status that makes it the biggest honeypot for nobility to settle and perhaps merchants travelling there to sell luxury goods, it mostly attract people from the surrounding region whom are majority rural farmers seeking better-luck (note that Westeros are agrarian-oriented society and only the nobility are rich, minority of smallfolk who became merchants probably have better luck, however even if they're poor farmers they can eat from saving some of their produce) and are wretchedly poor being heavily exploited peasants who serve their lords, and also the fact that in times of war it become a destination of refugees of war whom mostly have their property destroyed or coming from a poor background seeking the safety of the capital. As a result the city grew vainly and rapidly, unprepared with the coming mass of people and as well poor urban planning that the king seem to have no concern at (some here say guilds makes the governance of the town but even they might have trouble seeing massive growth in squalor who grew in area near the keep, and not to mention how corrupt the city is). Poor people who are flocking to the city usually can't afford to buy nice homes and sometimes ended up as unemployed (who also resort to crime to live because they can't buy food making KL a bigger shithole), start building up their own home from scrapes creating urban slums called "flea's bottom".

Unlike the other older cities who grew more "naturally" and older despite being around the same size or even bigger, King's Landing didn't have the proper infrastructure like sewage system or other old but funtioning infras, compared to other older cities which mostly are developed for centuries, causing KL to "stench like unwashed whore" that even its surrounding can smell it. Being capital also doesn't mean that smallfolk with more fortune would just go there, merchants who are more settled in strategic and fertile Oldtown won't relocate there because there is no reason for them to abandon their good life back home for a crime-ridden cesspool of a city, or the smiths and craftmens of Lannisport who are benefited by the high production of gold. What does KL actually offer? Crownland is neither the richest or the most fertile nor anything, apart from attracting refugees and nearby poor rural population and a few greedy-powerlust noble elites its a dump.

As a city it have potential to become rich because its located in a bay that can serve as a landtrade gateway of Westeros for Essosi merchants and also are located at a mouth of a river that might helped to serve the city's trade, but unfortunately it seems that sea trade is much preferred since most of the big city in Westeros are all seaports that already dominate its own market, and even it becomes richer it may took a lot of time to actually become descent civilized city like Oldtown/Braavos because its already an urban mess.

Edit: Baghdad, Constantinople and Rome are a big civilized metropolis of it's time but the two are strategically located, while Rome wasn't built in a day.

[Batbob45]

The crappiest city is where Ramsey or Euron is staying at.

[Arataniello]

It's the crappiest city because we do not have descriptions as detailed for other cities in Westeros with which we can draw a comparison. Who is to say that parts of Oldtown are not as bad, if not worse.

Compare medieval descriptions of London - simultaneously one of the greatest cities on Earth, yet absolutely chock full of hideous poverty, filth and stench.

[Haus of Targaryen]

Not to mention all the sh!t and piss the people of Flea Bottom throw out of their windows right into the streets. I mean come on Tywin should've given Tyrion back his old job (cisterns & drains at the Rock) apparently he was good at making sure the sh!t found its way to the sea