Industry | Water supply |
---|---|
Predecessors | Southwark Waterworks Company Vauxhall Waterworks Company |
Founded | 1845London, UK | in
Defunct | June 24, 1904 |
Fate | Municipalised |
Successor | Metropolitan Water Board |
The Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company was a utility company supplying water to parts of south London in England. The company was formed by the merger of the Southwark and Vauxhall water companies in 1845 and became part of the publicly owned Metropolitan Water Board in 1904.
The Borough Waterworks Company was formed in 1770, originally supplying water to a brewery and the surrounding area, which spanned the distance between London and Southwark Bridges. The adjacent area was supplied by the London Bridge Waterworks Company. London Bridge Waterworks was dissolved in 1822, and its water supply licence was purchased by the New River Company. The Borough Waterworks Company purchased the licence from the New River Company later that same year, and it was renamed the Southwark Water Company. The company extracted water from the River Thames using steam engines to pump it to a cistern at the top of a 60-foot-high (18 m) tower. [1]
The South London Waterworks Company was established by private act of parliament in 1805. The company extracted water from the Thames beside Vauxhall Bridge. In 1833 the company supplied 12,046 houses with approximately 12,000 gallons of water. [2] In 1834, the company was renamed the Vauxhall Water Company. [1]
On 10 January 1845 the two companies submitted a memorial to the Health of Towns Commissioners proposing amalgamation. The memorial noted that since 1834 competition had increased between Southwark, Vauxhall, and Lambeth Water Companies and that the "results of that competition were as inconvenient to the public as they were disastrous to the companies, and afforded the very strongest illustration of the truth of the doctrine... that the principle of competition cannot with advantage be applied to the operations of water companies." The effect of competition on the companies was described as "an immense expenditure of capital in utter waste - double or treble sets of mains and pipes being laid down in districts where one set would better have served the inhabitants. An enormous annual outlay, equally in utter waste, in the salaries of canvassers and commission to agents, who procured tenants; in the bills of plumbers, who changed the service pipes of the tenants from one set of mains to another; in the charges of taking up and relaying roads and pavements on the like occasions; in double and treble sets of turncocks and pipe-layers; and, as the climax of absurdity, a payment of all parochial and district rates in every parish on all the pipes of all the companies, in proportion to the capital expended on assumed profits or interest, which it is needless to say had no existence." [2]
The bill promoted by the two companies successfully passed through parliament, and the Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company formed later that year. [1] The area supplied by the SVWC was centred on the Borough of Southwark, reaching east to Rotherhithe, south to Camberwell and in the west including Battersea and parts of Clapham and Lambeth. [3]
The amalgamated company established waterworks at Battersea Fields with two depositing reservoirs with a capacity of 32 million gallons; and two filtering reservoirs holding 11 million gallons. [3] In 1850 the company's water was described by the microbiologist Arthur Hassall as "the most disgusting which I have ever examined". [1]
The Metropolis Water Act 1852 was enacted "to make provision for securing the supply to the Metropolis of pure and wholesome water". Under the Act, it became unlawful for any water company to extract water for domestic use from the tidal reaches of the Thames after 31 August 1855, and from 31 December 1855 all such water was required to be "effectually filtered". [4] In the meantime, an outbreak of cholera in 1854 led to the deaths of an estimated 4,267 people supplied by the company. [5]
To comply with the legislation, the Southwark and Vauxhall Company built new waterworks in Hampton between Molesey and Sunbury Locks in 1855. The site was shared in a joint venture with the Grand Junction Waterworks Company and the West Middlesex Waterworks Company. The company also constructed the Stain Hill Reservoirs and a 36-inch-diameter (910 mm) direct water main to Battersea, its main network of smaller mains spreading out along the route. A third reservoir was opened later in the year between Nunhead Cemetery and Peckham Rye. [1]
Notwithstanding this, in 1878 from contamination or low-quality filtration, this water company had substantially the worst quality of water. This may in part have been due to less used, uncovered filter beds in Battersea which were soon after 1900 made defunct. Dr. Frankland's analysis of water supplied to London during the month of October 1876 gave a relative degree of organic impurity compared to a given volume of the Kent Company's water. He also compared the samples from those of August and September. Organic impurity was measured relative to the Kent Water Company's benchmark, who supplied part of London (in areas, in direct competition with the others). The figures were: [6]
Competing Company | Relative impurity |
---|---|
New River | 0.9 |
Kent | 1 |
East London | 2.4 |
West Middlesex | 2.8 |
Grand Junction | 3.3 |
Lambeth | 4.1 |
Chelsea | 4.2 |
Southwark | 4.5 |
The water delivered by the latter five companies, drawing their supply exclusively from the Thames, when compared with that supplied in August and September, showed a marked deterioration in quality. It had a higher proportion of contamination with organic matter. The sample of the Southwark Company's water was poorest: "slightly turbid from insufficient filtration, and contained moving organisms". [6]
By 1903 the SVWC supplied a population of 860,173 in 128,871 houses of which 122,728 (95.3%) had a constant supply. [7]
Hampton is a suburban area on the north bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England, and historically in the County of Middlesex. which includes Hampton Court Palace. Hampton is served by two railway stations, including one immediately south of Hampton Court Bridge in East Molesey.
The London Hydraulic Power Company was established in 1883 to install a hydraulic power network in London. This expanded to cover most of central London at its peak, before being replaced by electricity, with the final pump house closing in 1977.
Seething Wells is a neighbourhood in southwest London on the border between Surbiton in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in Greater London, and Elmbridge in Surrey. The area was historically a waterworks that supplied London with water from the River Thames. Nowadays it is mainly a residential area, with the notable exception of decommissioned filter beds — the Seething Wells Filter Beds — in the northwest part of the area that borders the Thames.
The Metropolitan Water Board was a municipal body formed in 1903 to manage the water supply in London, UK. The members of the board were nominated by the local authorities within its area of supply. In 1904 it took over the water supply functions from the eight private water companies which had previously supplied water to residents of London. The board oversaw a significant expansion of London's water supply infrastructure, building several new reservoirs and water treatment works.
Molesey Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England at East Molesey, Surrey on the right bank.
The Stain Hill Reservoirs in London, England with embankments occupy 0.175 square kilometres. They are a pair which sit high between others; Kempton Nature Reserve; riverside houses in Sunbury-on-Thames; and a low area of flood meadow to the west alongside the closing stretch of the Port Lane Brook. Other nearby settlements are Molesey, Hampton and Hanworth.
The Bessborough Reservoir is an embanked storage reservoir south of the River Thames in Surrey adjacent to the Knight Reservoir. To the south lies Queen Elizabeth II Reservoir and to the north the now disused Molesey Reservoirs. The A3050 runs to the north of the reservoir and the neighbouring town is Molesey to the east. It forms part the green buffer between Molesey and Walton on Thames. The reservoir is in the borough of Elmbridge.
The Knight Reservoir is a large pumped storage reservoir located in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey. It was inaugurated in 1907 and stores up to 2,180 million litres of raw water abstracted from the River Thames prior to its treatment and supply to London and north Surrey. It is located south of the River Thames, west of West Molesey, and between Hurst Road (A3050) and Walton Road (B369). It is adjacent to, and west of, its twin Bessborough Reservoir.
Sunnyside Reservoir is a reservoir forming part of the Hampton waterworks complex within the London borough of Richmond-upon-Thames.
London's water supply infrastructure has developed over the centuries in line with the expansion of London. For much of London's history, private companies supplied fresh water to various parts of London from wells, the River Thames and the River Lea. Further demand prompted new conduits and sources, particularly when the Agricultural and Industrial Revolution caused a boom in London's population and housing.
The East London Waterworks Company was one of eight private water companies in London absorbed by the Metropolitan Water Board in 1904.
Joseph Quick was an English civil engineer who was closely involved in improvements to supply piped water in the great industrial cities of the nineteenth century. Both his father and his son were also waterworks engineers by the name Joseph Quick.
The Broad Street cholera outbreak was a severe outbreak of cholera that occurred in 1854 near Broad Street in Soho, London, England, and occurred during the 1846–1860 cholera pandemic happening worldwide. This outbreak, which killed 616 people, is best known for the physician John Snow's study of its causes and his hypothesis that germ-contaminated water was the source of cholera, rather than particles in the air. This discovery came to influence public health and the construction of improved sanitation facilities beginning in the mid-19th century. Later, the term "focus of infection" started to be used to describe sites, such as the Broad Street pump, in which conditions are favourable for transmission of an infection. Snow's endeavour to find the cause of the transmission of cholera caused him to unknowingly create a double-blind experiment.
The Grand Junction Waterworks Company was a utility company supplying water to parts of west London in England. The company was formed as an offshoot of the Grand Junction Canal Company in 1811 and became part of the publicly owned Metropolitan Water Board in 1904.
The Lambeth Waterworks Company was a utility company supplying water to parts of south London in England. The company was established in 1785 with works in north Lambeth and became part of the publicly owned Metropolitan Water Board in 1904.
The West Middlesex Waterworks Company was a utility company supplying water to parts of west London in England. The company was established in 1806 with works at Hammersmith and became part of the publicly owned Metropolitan Water Board in 1904.
The City of Nottingham Water Department (1912–1974), formerly the Nottingham Corporation Water Department (1880–1912), was responsible for the supply of water to Nottingham from 1880 to 1974. The first water supply company in the town was the Nottingham Waterworks Company, established in 1696, which took water from the River Leen, and later from springs at Scotholme, when the river became polluted. Other companies were set up in the late 18th century and in 1824, while in 1826 the Trent Water Company was established. They employed Thomas Hawksley as their engineer, who became one of the great water engineers of the period, and Nottingham had the first constant pressurised water supply system in the country. The various companies amalgamated in 1845, and Hawksley remained as the consulting engineer until 1879.
Essex and Suffolk Water is a water supply company in the United Kingdom. It operates in two geographically distinct areas, one serving parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, and the other serving parts of Essex and Greater London. The total population served is 1.8 million. Essex and Suffolk is a 'water only' supplier, with sewerage services provided by Anglian Water and Thames Water within its areas of supply. It is part of the Northumbrian Water Group.
The Metropolis Water Act 1852 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which introduced regulation of water supply companies in London, including minimum standards of water quality for the first time.
The Newcastle and Gateshead Water Company supplied drinking water to the towns of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, in the north east of England, from 1845 until 1974. It was initially called the Whittle Dean Water Company, but changed its name in 1863, and gradually increased the area which it supplied. It became part of the Northumbrian Water Authority in 1974 when the UK water companies were nationalized.