Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the smells required to accurately recreate certain historic settings are not particularly pleasant – among the more-than 500 speciality scents listed on AromaPrime’s website are such unappealing but evocative offerings as mildew, garum, chlorine gas, sewers, and rotting flesh – but, when the company launched in 1973 (then known as Dale Air), its main focus was removing bad smells. Founder Fred Dale began with designing pleasant aromas for places like hospitals and care homes, and also devised nostalgic scents to encourage reminiscence and conversation between residents of the latter spaces, particularly those with dementia. Many of these individuals had been young in the 1920s and ’30s, and so Fred created comfortingly familiar scents from those decades: toffee, coal fires, horses, carbolic soap.

— Read more in Scent back in time: how ancient odours can bring the past to life at The Past.

Developed by creative agency Space, the bus shelters feature an upside-down “living roof” made of roses and cucumbers, while an infused scent is dispensed throughout the shelter to tempt commuters. A doorbell is also engraved on with the sign “Press for the Peculiar” that plays music while the voice of a Victorian gentleman conveys a monologue.

— Hendrick’s Gin has taken over selected bus shelters in London, Manchester, Brighton, Cardiff and Liverpool to promote its new Gin Cucumber Lemonade. Read more in Victorian-Style Bus Shelters Scented With Roses and Cucumber to Promote Gin at Adweek.

“It’s sickly,” said Dr. Laven, a history professor from Britain who was in Manhattan on an eight-day vacation. “I dislike it intensely.”

— A visitor comments on the fragrance being diffused at One World Observatory in New York City. Read more at That Smell at the Top of One World Trade? It’s on Purpose at The New York Times.