350 LONDON IN'fHE NINI'.'tIlENTH CtrNTURY stancling until the abolition of the old Lor-rdon Bridge in r83r. \\'.e rla)' nou' convenientll- glance at the historl' of each big compauy in turn.

'fhe r,vater-suppi,vwas at the encl of the nineteenth centLrr)'in tl-re hands oi eight private companies, rvhose 6zo square miles of area comprisecl the wl-rolc of the \'Ietropolis ancl parts of Nliddlesex, Herts, F)ssex, Kent, and Surrev, The oldest of these, the Net, River Companr', originatecl in I6r3, in the manner alreacly describecl. The first shareholders were incorpor:rted in t6r9, under thc

\Ii\\' RI'IlR \\"\'I'Eli\\'ol{KS

Stoke Ne\ ington Ile5er\oir. .lr,rn irrg outlel

Itrottt a l)/tolo 1'1'-/. F, ,1lost1'tt Cltttl,t

title of ,''fhe Governors ar-rdConrpanv of the New River brought from Chadwell ancl Amwell to Lor-rdon." The directorate u'as vested in twenty-nine persons,who held thirt,r,six aclventurers'shares-so called in contradistinction to those held by the Iiing and his assigns-which had originally belonged to Sir I{r'rgh \{1'ddleton, tvho at this tinte retained onl1' tlvo.l Jarnes L did not live to receive any profits hirnself,and the thirty-six King's shares u'ere afteru'arclsresigned by Charles L

I \o p:rr.ticulararea of sLrpPlr-l:rs grantecl to tlrc Conrpanl', at.iclthcre lls tto lit-uitlrtion of capital in the Cl.rarter. A Selcct Colrntittee of tltc Hor:se of Cournrons in t E: I st:ttc(1 the ol iginal c.):it to hllve bcen houses suppliecl, l'hc total {369,6oo. Its capital in rti37 las f l.:oo,ooo: revcnLle /lo5,ooo; 73'ooo. income of tl-rcnine other compaltiesthen cristilg lttloul)tcrl in rS37 to f r93,ooo. THE \\'ATEI{ SUI'PLY J5T in retr-trtrfor a yearly p,ayrlent of {5oo, u,hich the Crou,n receives to this dar : a palt11- sultl tvhen comparecl with the great value the sharcs \l.<:re clestinecl to possess at a later clate. N o clividencl \\ras paid till r 6J 3. I3y the encl of the se\renteenthcer-rtur1- each share of the New River Company ll,asearning a diviclencl 'lhe of about {rco, and in r89o a liing's share rvas sold for {g5,ooo. Cornpanr- r,vasregulated by Acts of Parliamentin r 73S, tT39, r767, r7Tg, r8o5, rgzz, ancl r83o, the last of rvhich etnpou,eredit to erect two large impounding reservoirs at Stoke Neu.ington. \\'hen the New River co'rpan1' .bsorbecl the olcl Lo'don llricl!-.ewaterrvorlis irl l8:z thet'trndertookat the same tiure to suppl1'water to all citizenslr,hom the olcl Companl' hacl served, ancl to seclrre the thcn clividend to the original lrropricturs for two hundred and sixty years, n:rmel1',to the ex1-,ir1.of the leaseof fir,e hLrnclrecl Yearsu'hich had been granted in r532. l'hus the Nelv Rir.er Conrpanv u.ere bound to pa)'dSZSo ller altnum to the representatives of the origina.l orvners untii the ':,o8:. r-ear Other undertakings boLrght bv the Conrpar-r1.\\.ere the Hampste:rcl \\'aterrvorks, the Norch N'Iiclcllesex\\'arteru,orks, :r.ncla private enterprise a.t Ilush Hill Parl<. Thc Nelv River rises ;rt Chaclwell Spring, about :r rnile beyoncl \\'are, in Hertforclshire. A short clistancebelorv this point rhe river is joined by :r branch cut rvhich conveys wltat became the nrain part of thc Company's sr-rppl1-,namely the water fronr the River Lea. At first this suppll, rv:rs tal

Only 6z9 houses were on the first list of thc supply, ancl no dividencl r,v:rspaid for t\\'enty years, br-rtthe concern lvas controlled by far-seeing men who had no doubt of their ultinrate success. In r8oz the area was extended to the "respectable and popLrlousneighbourhood" of The Horns, Kennington. Abor-rt rSro the develop- nlent of drainage led to a large increaseof population in the Cornpany'sclistrict, and the works had to be enlarged. IJ), r8zo the r,voodenpipes were supersedeciby cast- iron ones. An open reservoir was erected on Streatham Hiil in r832, being served from the Belvedere Road \Vorks, and tlvo years later two large open reservoirs lvere

' r': ..h .;i

cLItANING our FILTDR-tsr:Lls, IiAt.TERsE.\ (rtlrnrrrr \YATER$-ORXS)

constructed at Brixton. The Company was reincorporated in 1848, and as the \vater becarnefoul from the reception of sewage in the river they anticilrated the 'I'heir Act of r85z by renroving their intake to Seething \Vells. district u'as at the same time largely extencled,and inhabitants u,ho had been accustonreclto buy water from carts at from jd. to zd. per pail, zrccorclingto its qualitl-, no\\' h:rd a proper suppll' laid on. Betrveen 1854 and 186r the Company nrade extensions to Dulrvich, Forest Hill, and surrounding localities, conseqLrentLrpon the increased population in those districts rvl-richfollowed the opening of the Crystal Palace. Iiingston-on-Thames was brought into the Conrpany's a.rea in r 863, ancl an Act in r87l added the outlying portions of Esher ancl East and \\,Iest Nlolesey. CENTURY JJ+ LONDON IN THE NINETEENTH anci used To the latter place the Cornpany at the same time removed their intake, witnessed the gravel there as an additional source of supply. Almost every year million n"* pip. extensions,and by igoo the Company had powers to abstract rz4! are gallons daily from the Thames. Their area is Io3 square miles, of which 4r district is bounded on the north in London, 56 in Surrey, and 6 in l{ent. The by the Thames at Southwark, on the south by Claygate' on the east by Shortlands' and on the west by Molesey ; and the population supplied is 729,274. company we go back to the 4. For the origin of the East London waterworks in 1669 began days of shaclwell w"ter*orks, originated by Thomas Neale, which 1687, and to supply a large part of East London. Neale obtained a charter in letters formecla company, and in r68r the shareholdersbecame a body corporate by supply patent. In 1747 George Nlontgomerie and others were empowered to station was Stratford, West Ham, and the Bow district with water, and a pumping both erected on a branch of the River Lea. The London Dock Company purcliased the those concerns in rEo7, but in the same year an Act of I'arliameirt established them East Lonclon Waterworks Company, who in I8o8 were enabled to purchase from the Dock Company. The East London immediately replacecl the r'vooclen acres on pipes by iror-rones, erected a pumping station at Old Forcl, bought 30 gallons tlre banks of the Lea for reservoirs,and ir-rr8z8 were pumping 6.5rz,z9z in l8z9' daily. Hackney \Vaterworks and the Lea Briclge N{ills were purchased Briclge, and about the same time the intake \vas removed from Olcl Ford to Lea reservoir at from which point the water was conveyed by a conduit to the storage authority was Old trorcl and pumped thence for the supply of the district' In r853 large obtained to make several new cuts in connection with the Lear, to construct to make impounding reservoirs at Walthamstow and filter-beds at Lea Bridge, and to an intercepting cut or canal on the westerly side of the Lea from Tottenham the river beyond Ponders End in order to prevent any polluted water from entering to establish works above the intake. Parliamentary Powers were granted in r 867 'fhames and in the ar Sunbury and Hanworth for supplying water to the district, at Old Forci, same year the Company were compelled to discontinue the reservoirs year. which were in the centre of an area affected by the cholera of the preceding and channels An Act was passedin r886 enabling the Company to make certain cuts four sources of to Chingforcl and Walthamstow, and to sink wells' They have at Chingford second, deep wells suppiy ' fi..t and largest the Lea, the intake being ; and Waltham in the chalk at Walthamstow, Chingford, O1d Ford, Lea Bridge' springs at Hanworth' They Abbey ; third, the l'hames at Sutlbury; and fourth' their district are empowerecl to supply an area of 139 square miles. On the north east by Hog Hiil, is bounded by Waltham Abbey, on the south by Stepne|, on the were allowed to and on the west by Hornsey. By an Act in 1867 the Company of the century the take ro,ooo,ooo gallons daily from the Thames; by the end THE WATER-SUPPLY 355 powers had increased to 4o,ooo,ooo. Adclitional reservoirsfor their Lea supply were authorisedin t8g7, increasingthe total reservoircapacity to 2,2oo,eoo,ooo gallons; but a Bill in r899 to enabie the constructionof further reservoirscon- taining 5'ooo,ooo,ooogallons was thrown out by the House of Lords. partial failure of the East London supply, ou,ing to rhe drought in rggg, impelled the Government to passa Bill in the following year enablingthe water companiesto iink up their mains and thus be in a position to render assistanceto one another. The populationsupplied is r,326,548. 5' The West N{iddlesexWater Cornpanywas incorporatedin r8o6 to furtherthe scheme of an engineernamed Dodd for supplyingthe West End. They erecredar Hammersnrith two steam-enginesof zo horse-power,ancl at a clistanceof onefurlong

LAIlI]E]'II \\'A'I'ER\VORKS. PUf,IPING ROO,\I from the Thames two reservoirs to contain r,33,3,ooogallons each, a brick tunnel being made from the river to the engine wells. The water was punrped from the wells into the reservoirs, where it was allowed to subside; it was then distributed by the same engines through 6-inch and 8-inch elm pipes. Soon the .woodenpipes rvere discarded in favour of stone ones, which also had a short term, being replaceclby cast-iron pipes in I8o8. At Campden Hill a high-servicestorage reservoir u,asbuilt. Competition against each other was so little palatable to rhe \\'esr Ilidcllesex and New Rivercompanies, that in r8r5 theyagreecl to amalgamate; but the Ilill to effect this reform was ultimately abandoned, and each q.rietly pursued its independenr course. At Barrow Hill, near Primrose Hill, the West Midcllesex built a reservoir in t825, which was partially filled from a well situated at a poinr opposite the ro:rcl now called Wells Road. Water stood in this well at a level of r 8a feet from the surface of the ground, but the supply proved so smali that it was abandoned. ^.4 i)u LONDON IN THI] NINE,TEENTHCENTURY

Subsidine reservoirs r,vere built at llarnes in r838, the water from them being conveyed to the engines at Hanrnrersmith through a pipe laicl in the bed of tire rir,er. \\Ihen the Act of r85z obliged the renroval of the intakes to be1'6nd 16" ticlal limit, the West N'{iddlesexselected Hampton as the best position for their ,uvorks,ancl therefore relinquished Barnes in r855. A special Act ir-rI866 limiteci the quantity to be taken from the Thames to 2o,ooo,ooogallons claily,and extended the limits fixed by the Act of r85z within rvhich the Company can supply water. In r886 the Thames Conservancy authorised them to take 24,5oo,ooo gallons per day, though certain further powers were obtained in r89g, They are empowered to supply some 85 square miles, and the area which they actually supply stretches from Hendon in the north to Chiswick in the south, and from Acton in the west to Regent's Park in the east. Although for the first thirteen years the West N'Iidcllesexpaid no dividend, and for many years afterrvardsonly a small diviclend, they were the first of the eight companies to pay the nraximuni diviclend allowed by the lar,v. They supply a population of 633,554. 6. Two histories have to be told in the case of the SouthwarlLondon Bridge \Vatcrworks 'lhan-res lying south of the and supplying South London, ancl callecl his br-rsiness here the Southwark Water Company. \Vhen NIr' Vaughan died in 1833 his representativesreceived Parliamentary sanction to sell the joint concerns, wirich were kno$rn as Southwark \Vaterworks, and, accordingly,they were disposed of to a newcon.)panyin r839 for {4r,ooo. At first this Company obtained their supply of warer from the Lambeth Cornpany, paying {z4oo annually for it, but when the Sourhwark Water Company Act of Incorporation of r834 directed that the suppiy should be taken from the neighbourhood of Battersea, and filtered previous to delivery, the Company erected works there, rvhich were completed in r84I. Already, however, parts of South Lonclon rvere supplied by the Vauxhall \\Iater- rvorks Company, originally establisheclin r Eo4 as the South Lonclon Waterworks. This Company began to supply the inhabitants in 18o7,but after six wceks its enginc- house anclr,vooden reservoir were burned dorvn. The Company struggled on, obtain- ing power to raise further capital. The river water was taken from a brool< at 'I'hames Brixton cailed the \\rashway, which florved into the at Vauxhail ; concern- ing the jurisdiction over this brook there were frequent clisputes. In rSzE the Company built auxiliary works at Cunrberland Gardens, adjoining the foot of Vauxhall Briclge, including a 4z-inch tunnel into the middle of the river, terminating 8 feet below low-rvater mark. Sor-neof the rvater was pumped fronr the river into ]'HE WATEIT-SUPPLY

the reservoir at Kennington Lane, but the bulk of it was taken direct fronr the channel at Vauxhall Creek. When, however, orving to the renroval of Olcl Lonclon Bridge, atrd to the increasing accumulations at Vauxhall, the water frorl the Creeli at neap tides became foul, the Compan), laid down in rg3z zr large tunnel of pipes inches in 48 di:rmeter to con'rmunicatewith the inlet laid beneath the beci of the river, thtts conveying the water clirectlyinto the Kcnnington I-ane works. A1 Act of Parliamer-rt in t 834 extencleclthe area of supply, ancl alterecl tire uanre of the Company to the Vauxhall Wetter Company in orcler to avoid its being confusedr,r.ith the Lambeth and Southrvark Companies. But, about the end of r84r, the afi-airsof the Conrpany becarne involved, owing partly to the competirion of the two rival compernies, and partly to the expense of substituting iron for rvooclenpipes, ancl erectitlg more pou'erful machinerl'. In the session of r8.+3 trvo schemcs were brought forward, having for their object rhe suppll, of the \/auxhall Conrpanl,,s district. Neither of these succeedecl. At a 'reeting of the company in Dece'rber t843 it was proposed to amalgamate rvith the Sor-rthn-a.rkCompa.nlr; powcr to do so was granted in 1845, and the two Companies became one on October r of that "'fhe year under the title of Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Compa1y." The engines at Cut-uberlandGardens, near Vauxhall Bricige,and ar Kennington Lane were stopped in r 847, and the lvhole works were concentrateclat l]attersea. In accordance with the general Act o{'r852 the source of supply was removeclfrom Battersea to Han-rpton on July 26, 1855. About this time the Company began to srrpply the parish of Putney; in r85Z, by agreemenr r,vith the Lambeth Con11r"ry, \\timbledon was taken in, and in 186r they took over the district served bl, Richmond \Vater Company, wirose works ancl plant they purchasedat the ilstigatiol of the parish. Additional r'vorksrvere begun at Hampton in fi67 to meet increasing demand, atld subsequent years rvitnessedrepeated extensious,down to the lraking of six new filter-beds at the end of the century. In r88r a deep weli rvas sr-rnk in tire chalk on land acquired by the Company at Streatham. An arrangemenr was made in r884 for obtaining lvater from the gravel-beds at Ha"nrpton, u-hich, with the Streatl-ram well, constituted sources of supply sr-rpplementarvto that of the Thames itself. Ihe intakes are on the north side above Hanrpton ; the Cornpany are empowerecl to serve 5o| square miles, ancl tire area of supply is bounded on the north by Southwark, on the east by Nunheacl, on the south b1. Wirnbledon, and on the west by I(ew Gardens. B), o,-,Act of rEgg the Company, were authorised to construct two additional reservoirs, ancl to take an aclclitiolal quantity from the Thames. They may take roo,ooo,ooo gallons daily' from the river, and they supply a population of 833,r 25. 7. The Kent Waterworks Conrpany dates from r8o9, u,hen it u,as founclecl to supplv Deptford, Greenwich, Lee, Lewisham, and ltotherhithe. The Company bought for {65,ooo the Ravensbourne \\''aterworks, which had existecl since r7or, CENTURY 358 LONDON IN THE NINE'I'EENTH the water from consisting of pumping machinery Paddington' Those powers name supply, however, were transferreclin r8I I to a new body, which, aclopting the Waterworks Compan)', constructed works to the sottth of the canal of-Grand Junction 'l'he basin and north of the road formerly known as the Grand Junction Road. use at first work was more expensive than the Compzrnv had anticipated, and the meant of stone distributing pipes, which NIr. Rennie, the engineer, hacl advised, a great loss, as they had soon to be supplanted by iron pipes' The Company originally drew their supply from the Grand Junction Canal, r,vhose sources were the three in number, namely, the River Colne (a source suggested by \{r' Martin Ruislip' painter), the River Brent, and a reservoir fed by the streamsof the Vale of Owing to the pollution of the canal by land drainage, and to the foul character of to abandon this the Brent, the Grand Junction Waterworks Company were obliged source of supply. They then arranged to get water frot-t-tthe Regent's Canal Company, but the latter soon found that they could not afford to part with the quanrity of water agreed upon. The quality of this supply, also, had been com- TFIE WATER.SUPPLY 359 il I plained of, and the Grand Junction Waterworks Company therefore i1 rgr9 changed their source of supply to the Thames at Chelsea; an arrangement more precisely defined in l8z6 in the Act which gave the Company enlarge.i powers ancl declared them to be a company for supplying water from the River Thames. A conduit was laid into the bed of tl-re river, and througir this the water was pumped by steam engines to the station at Pacldington. The district suppliecl by the Company in r83o consistedof Pacldingtonancl the area between O"forcl Street ancl the Green Park. A large scheme of supply brought before Parliarrient by the Company (referred to elsewhere)was not passed. An Act passed in rg35 enablecl the Grand Company to take Junction their supirly from Brcnrford, 35o yards from Kew Bridge, u'hich was at this tinre the highesr point of intake of any of the metro- politan companies,and where the water was purer than that to be obtai.ecl in the direct vicinity of London. About ten years later 'falbot the Padclington works, sit.atecl where and Norfolk Squares now stand, were removeclto C:r6pdep Hill. I' accordancer'vith the Act of I85z the Company removed their intake to sunbur1,. It is now at Hampton. Their district was exrencled in 186r to inch-rde chis- wick, Acton, and numerous otirer places, and in r878 Heston apcl Halwell and the previously-excluded 'I'he parts of Ealing and Isleworrh were broLrglitin. Company applied to Parliament in 1888 for power ro acquire land at l)orney in l3uckinghamshire, where they proposed to erect works rvith an intake from the Thames near Boveney Lock and a pumping station connected with I{ew IiricJge works by a line of conduit main ; but the Bill did not pass. The principal trunk mains of the Grand Junction Company are connected with those of the West N'Iiddlesex, chelsea, and East London cor-'panies. They are empou,ered to supply an area of square 5zJ miles. Their clistrict is bounde.l on tlre south by Hampton court, north by park, Kilburn, east by St. James's and u,est b), Ealing and Sutton' They supply a population of 43r,oo4, and are allorved ro take z4f million gallons daily from the Thames.

The companies in existence before r8ro had obtained charters or Acts empowering thern to make works and lay down pipes, and each company clrerv up a scaleof charges to levy in its own districr. But, when in r8rr powers of supply were granted to the East London, West N{iddlesex,and Grancl Junction Companies, the long day of monopoly was legally ended,for the principlc of the Acrs uncler.u,hich these conlpanieswere created was the encouragementof competition. people at this time were wild for speculation,and the companiesboldly fought an open fight in one another's hitherto appropriated territory. So intense becanre the fever of rivalry that it affected even the r'vorkmenwho were engaged from nrorning till night in tearing open the streets for laying new pipes. But the companies were not siow to realise that this system was not likely to increase their profits, ancl an agreement in rg15 CENTURY 360 LONDON IN THE NINETEENTH between the New River and East London companies was follor,vedtrvo years later by a pacific understanding anong the companies supplying the western part of tire 'l'he \,Ietropolis. short-lived competition thus being brought to a close, r'irtual rlonopoly was establisheclwith a moral sanction stronger than before. l'he area of supply was partitioned anong the companies,each withdrawing its services t'ithitt a linc agreed upon, and exchanging u'ith another the pipes which had been laid dor'vn beyonclits orvn boundary. From that time a great amount of public nlorley was spent in Parliamentary inquiries and atternpts to lcgislate upon the question of water-sLrp;,1y,but the only important measure effected down to the end of the centur),, apart fron-r the \\iaterrvorlis Clauses Act of I8117,was the onc prociuced by the searching of heart r,r'hichfollorvecl the cholera epidemic of r8:19' The Boarclof Health had condemned the rvater-supp11',and numerous inrproving Bills had been a introduced ancl rejected,when in r85: Lord John Russeli'sGovcrnment introduced Biil prohibiting the companies from taking water from the tidal Thames, enforcing filtration, and providing for a constant supply and other reforms. The succeeding Aclministration (Lord Derby's) took up the Bill and passed it as the N'Ietropolis Water Act, 1852. This Act was greatly beneficial to consunlers,principalll' In comoelling the companies to desist from taking u,ater frorn within the tidewal', and is the to resorr ro purer parts of the river above the lock at Teddington, rvhich zrny point beyoncl which the ticle does not flow. The maximurn dividend which .o,11p",ly could pay rvas fixed at ro per cent, and one of the nrost useful provisions of the Acl caused the conlpanies to roof in every reservoir within a radius of water rvas stored for domestic rtse,unless 5 miles from St. Paul's Cathedral in which such rvater was subjected by the company to efficient filtration after it r,vasdischargecl from the reservoir ancl before it was passeclinto the mains lbr distribution' Some hope lvas entertained that tl-renew \'letropolitan Board of Works, created in r855, would have large powers with regard to water-supp11',but, while they received power to purchase lands and rvater rights, the w:rter rvhich they could supply rvas to be neither for domestic, manufacturing, nor commercial purposes.

'f " " he tale of agitation and ineffectual atten.tpts to improve the water ancl the basis of London water government is a nruch longer one than that of the acttral legislation. \\rhen the competition among the companies collapsed in I8 r 7 consumerscomplained bitterly of the increaseclprice they were called upon to Pay, in some cases antounting to as much as z5 per cent. An anLi-water-monopoly association was formed, rvhich held public meetings, :rnd drerv up petitions to be prese6ted to Parliamenr. In l8r8 the Select \restry of Nlarylebone itself tried to p"r, . tsill for establishing a parochial rvater comPany, and this was followed b1' a similarly unsuccessfulattempt by X{r. \'Iichael Angelo Taylor to fix a maximunt rate above r,r,hichthe water companies rnight not charge' At length in tSzt THE WATEI{-SUPPLY . r^, Jv r Parliament, before whose Select Committee in r8ro the water-supply hacl been proved to be scant)'and precarious,again undertook an investigation,*hi.h, hou,ever, erlded only b}' a report in favour of parli:rmentary controi of the rates apd an opinion that the supply rvas superior ro that enjoyecl by any city in Europe. A proposal was rnade in t8z4 by N'Ir. I'hilip Tayror, .ngin""r, to nrake a subterraneous aqueduct from the'I'harles neelrRichnrond to convey $,ater to a spot under Kensal Green, whence it w:rs to be raised by steam power into a rescrvoir for conrmon service; from this reservoir another subterrzrr,"ou.aquecluct r,vasto continlle to a spot near Hampstead Heath, anci then the water was to be raiseclto zr reservoir and used for high service. In the follorving ),€ar N,Ir Janrcs NIills proposed to bring Thames water for sever:rl miles :rbove Lonclon by an open can:rl to an immense reser\/oirin Battersea Fielcis,u'hence all the companies n,ere to take their supplies' but the project did not proceed. Abor-rt the same time the Xletro- politan Waterworks Cornpany was formed to obt:rin a suppll, of pure soft spring water from beneath the blue clay about 35 fathoms deep; their Rill \\,:rs abandoned after passing some of the stages. Among the attacks lvliich \\'erc levelled against the contpanies particular attention was attractecl by n panrphlet "The entitled Dolphin," published in rgz7. The writer, a [,,Ir.J. \\rrighr of Ilegelt Street, alleged " that the water tal

Bill, however, did not pass. A report on the best means of providing pure water was drawn up in 1834 at the instigation of Parliament b)'Mt. Telford, who recom- rnended that the New River Company should go to thc River Lea for an aclditional supply, and that at a cost of dr,T7Z,84o the Grand Junction, West N{iddlesex,and Chelsea Companies should obtain their supplies from the River Verulam, and the Lambeth, South London, and Southwark Companies theirs fron-rthe River Wanclle. A water inquiry conducted by a Committee of the House of Conrmons in 183+ was never finished,and a Committee of the House of Lords in r84o contented them- seiveswith taking evidence and laying it before their Chamber. Artesian wells were proposed in r847: r4o,ooo,ooo gallons were to be provided daily from eighty wells to be sunk on the north side and forty to be sunk on the south side of the N{etro- polis. f'he fact that the water level of cleep springs under l-onclon was shorving a steady depression told against this scheme,and it dropped out.t A proposal to supply London by turning Richmond Park into a gathering-ground of surlace water and shallow spring water, and another that the ro,ooo acres of Crown l:rncl within ro rniles of the Metropolis shoulcl be converted into gathering-grounds,were con- sicleredby the General Board of Health, who, howeverrrecommended finally in r85o that the new supply should be taken from drainage of a tract of land I5o sqLrare miles in area formed by the Bagshot Sands and the lower greensatrclsof Surrey. The Chemicai Commissionof r85r reported favourably on the schemeof the London (\Vatford) Spring Water Company-which in the hands of the London and Westminster Water Companl'had been before the Lords Committee in r8r1o- to bring sufficient water from the springs under the chalk at Bushey X{eadow to supply the north of London-the l3ushey N'Ieaclowbeing r64 feet above high-water mark, the water could be conveyed to London without any cosl beyoncl the actual cost of pipes, and the scheme was estimated to cost /4oorooo ; and a proposal to supply South London at a cost of {r5o,ooo fronr the chalk beds reposing on \Vealden clay on r8o square miles of land between Illackheath and Higham. N'{eanwliile the habits of the riparian population were changing ; a regular system of drainage supplanted the old cesspools,and the consequent sewage deposits in the river were further disturbed by the steam traffic which was now introduced upon its waters. Several other schemes were submitted to Parliament and rejected. One of these, introduced in the session of r8119,proposed to make a navigable cut from the Henley reach of the Thames to the Grand Junction Canal near \\rest Drayton, to alter such canal and the Pacldington Canal, and to coustruct reservoirs near Paddington and Primrose Hi11. Another, introduced in r85o on a petition of householders and rarepayers,proposed to bring a supply from the Thames at or near N{apledurham in

I T}rere are hundreds of artesian rvells in London ; many breweries,hotels, and rvorks have an indcpendent supply frorn this soutce; but no returns or statisticsexist to shorvhow nunrerotlsthese are, or rvhatamount of rvater underground London yields then-r. THE WA'IER-SUPPLY ;6:

the county o[ Oxford. Trvo others were brought in during the same session,namely, the Metropolitan Waterrvorks (Henley-on-'I'hames and London Aqueduct) Biil and the l-ondon (Watforcl) Spring Water Company Bill. I'he Nlapledurhanr Bill was stopped, and the others were defeated by rnajorities of about one irr-rndred. Lord Grey's Government in r85r introduced a Bill to consolidate the companies and place them under a Government department, the consolidatedconrpany to be guaranteed against any competition, and the diviclend to be limited to 5 per cent until the rates were reduced to or below the fixed scale,after rvhich it might be 6 per cent. The Bill was referred to a committee presided over by Sir Janres Graham, but was rejected, or'ving chiefly to the efforts of some seventy shareholders o[the companiesin Parliament. In the same year a Bill was introduced in the name of the people of London to givc control of the supply to a representative body, br.rt this too was thrown out. An interr.al o[ calm succeededthese efforts, and meanwhilethe advantagesof the Act of t85z were being felt, the conrpaniesspending on new works and alterations in the space of fourteen years no less a sum than {4,ooo,ooo. At the period of the cholera epidemic of 1832, which causecl5275 deaths in London, sanitary science was almost an unl

Conrpapy. In 1848-49recipients of the Larnbeth Company cliedat the rate of rz'5 per Iooo, ancl recipients of the Southwark at the rate of I r.8' The deaths anrong the recipients of the Lambeth Company in the r853-5,1outbreak were only 3'7 Per Iooo, the salutary recluction being attributed to the fact that the Companv had shortly before removed its source of supply from l{ungerford Briclgc to a point higher up the river, at Ditton; but the cleathsalnong the recipientsof the Southwarl< supply during the epiclemic rvere as many:rs 13 per looo' and this conlpany also soon began to take its water from a purer part of the Tharles than Battersea' Regarding the cholera of r 866 the same medical officer traced the outbreak to the impurity of the East London Company's supply from their reservoir at Olcl Forcl' "approximated ,,T[e :rrea of prevalence,"he said, with remarlWiltshire Canal, and to take from the Thames ancl these tributaries all the water requirecl, storing the surplus waters of the rvinter seasonin order to repay thc river svstc. i' summer; \'[r Brown, of Cirencester, proposed that the Upper T'hames clistrict should supply water for drinking purposes only to the cxtent of from 6,ooo,oooro gallons, 9,ooo,ooo ancl that the supply shoulcl be conveyed to Loncion by pipes along the Great Western Railway ; N{r. Bravencler, of Cirencester, nroposecl to collect water in the valle)'s of the Churn, the Colne, the lVinclrush, and the Ock, and convey it by a conduit pipe to London ; N'Ir. xl1-lne prol-rosecl:rt a. cost of {t,z5o,ooo to bring an a

A constant service to the inhabitants had been a subject of protracted clis- cussion. As early as r8+7 the \\raterworks Clauses Act had endorsed the principle, but the acloption of the constant-supply systern was optional, ancl tite companies neglected it. The Act of r85z compelled them to provide such a supply when four-fifths of the inhabitants, having the requisite appliances, made written application: but no application of the kind was ever sent in. On week-da1'sthe supply rvas available only for a ferv hours. On Sundays in many districts no water was supplied at all, rvhile in others it was comnlon for the inhabitants to be thankful rvhen a fire occurred in their neighbourhood, becausethe fire-engine being thus brought to their doors they had an opportunity to lap up water from the roadway. In the City itself in r85o there were 5o5 houses which had no separate supply but were dependent on stand-pipes or common cocks, where the citizens attended in crowds, pail in hand, at a fixed hour each day ; and sixty-fir'e houses which had a separate supply but were without cisterns; making altogether 5Zo out of the r6,3oo houses within the City which rvere without fixed receptaclesfor storing water between the hotrrs of daily supply. Dr. Horace Jeaffreson,who was resident medical officer to the fever hospital, made in r865 a house-to-houseinspection of the worst quarters of Lambeth, St. George's, Southrvark, Bermondsey, Rotherhithe (a district which had no public sr-rpplytintil r843),Bethnal Green, St. Luke's, \{iddlesex, St. Pancras,and St. Giles, and he " found the water in those typhus nests extremely deficient. Those houses the best " supplied," he reported, have each a butt holding about eighty gallons,into which water florvs from a stand-pipe for from ten minutes to haif an hour each day, and is supposed to supply the wants of twenty persons for cooking, the washing of their persons,house and linen, and for the rinsing down of the water-closet at such times as it may appear to suit the caprice of any one of the inmates. At other places a THE WATER-SUPPLY 367 larger butt' but in relation to the number of personsproporrionally smaller, supplies a rvhole court of ten or more three-roomed houses which have no backyard and a population of l5o people-members of thirty different families. On Sundays even this supply is absent, the water of the day before is gone, and in many housesthat for the Sunday cooking has to be begged from neighbours who may have provided themselves with a larger butt, who are more provident, or more clirty. Sometimes for part of Sunday and Monday the whole court has to borrow for their scant necessitiesfrom a 'pub' at " the corner (see p. 268). A Select Committee of the House of Commons who inquired in 1867 into the results of the Act of rg5z recommended that " the Act should be amended by provicling that every company should afford a coltstant supply of water to each house, so that the water r'ay be drawn direct from the cornpany'spipes at all times during the twentl,-four hours.,, We have seen that the Duke of Richmond's Royal Conrmissionin r869 urgecl that the constant service ought to be introduced promptly to the farthest extent possible, that in I87o Nir. J. Shaw Lefevre brought in a Bill providing for a constant supply ancl other radical changes,and that, in the follorving year, this Bill was withdrawn. A substitute measure,less drastic, then passedas the N,IetropolisWater Amenciment Act, r87r, and securedfor the inhabitants a constant supply under certain conditions, as well as an official analysis of the water. No company could be requirecl to give the constant supply, however, if it could be shown that more than one-fifth of the houses in the clistrictfor which it was wanted were not provided with the prescribed fittings. Regulations in accordance with the provisions of the Act were framed by the companies, but the Nletropolitan lJoard concluded that constant supply subject to such difficult regulations would be worse than the existing state of-thi.gs, ancl even when the Board of Trade had drafted a set of modifiecl regulations the Nletropolit:rnBoard " reported that these were so stringent as to render it extremeiy improbable that the system of constant supply provicleclfor by, the Act of parlia'rent can ever be brought into general operation whilst such regulationsare in force.,, It remained for the conscienceof the companiesthemselves to impel the reforr-n,anci the East London was the first to do so by introducing a constant supply to 6273houses in the parishesof Bethnal Green and Shoreditch. One by one rhe other cornpaniesfell into line, with the result that 666 of the 3ooo to 4ooo miles of mains i' London at the end of the year 1874 were constantly charged. In r88r there were on rhe constant-supply systenT 3g7,44r houses, equal to about 53 per ccnt of the u,hole number of houses supplied with water. Soon after the County Councii rvascreatecl in 1889 they discovered that only 423,562 of the 7gq,733houses i' the county were getting a constant suppll, and by N'Iarch r89,1,as the result of negotiations carried on with the companies, this number had been increased to 613,rg7. I3y the end of the century 867,227 houses,or about 95 per cent of the rvhole number, were on constant suppry. The average daily supply of water per head of the CENTURY 368 LONDON IN THE NINE,'|EEN'IH and in Igoo a poirulrrtion population in 1829 was 23.3 gallons,itt iS56 it was 33' per heacldaily. In r85: the of 6,o92,,53,6was sr-rpplieclwith about 36,72'gallons the Than-reswas Ioo,ooo'ooo amount of rvater ivhich the comllaniesmight talie from including the too,ooo,ooo which gallons daily; in rgoo it was 435,ooo,ooo ciaily, to abstract. The Staines the staines Reservoirs Joint comnrittee were authorised their supply by means Reservoirs Act, r896, h:rclenablecl the conrpaniesto increase supply of of storage reservoirs at Staines, ancl by clrarrn'in.qan aclditional 35'ooo'ooo on the a'mountrvhich nray gallons daily from the Thames. There is no restriction gailons supplied by the be absrracred from the Lea. The total of 77,3g7,74E,495 of ztz,ooo'ooo gallolls' of conrpaniesin tgoo meant in round figures a claily average from the Lea' rvhich about r 2O,ooO,OOowere clrawn fron the Thirme s, 50,060,009 source, of course' the and the rest from springs and lvells. Fronl the last-named lloard showing that purest water r.,", .leriuecl,analyses of the Local Governmcnt the deep wells of the Iient ,h" proportion of organic matter in samples from 2.8 in the case of the Lea, and co*pony r,vasonly o.-7.omp"red rvith frot-n r.6 to 2.g to 3.3 in the caseof the Thames'

believecl tl-iat rvith aclequate \\ie have seen thar the Royal Commission of r 869 rvas wholesome' The qrrality of the filtration the water which Lonclon was receiving Commission on the Pollution of water, ho1e'er, wholly failed to satisflythe Royal abandonmcnt of the existing Rivers, who, in their report in t872tr,recomrnenclecl the of the Lea, they saicl,was less sourcesof supply for domestic purposes. The water 'fhames, also shoulcl be abandotred'as the impure than that of the but the Lea to year' and there \vas no hope of water was deteriorating in cluality from )'ear all times safe for domestic use' On pLrrifyingit to such atr extent as to rend,erit :rt a. extended supply fro.r the it-r" other hand the Cornmissioners recontmenclecl sourcesin the l'hames Basin ; and existing cleeprvells in the chalk, ancl from similar should be transferred to:r they.duir".l th:rt the cotrtrol of the r'vater-supply that the water systemsshould be con- rerionsible public body. A recommendation also came frotn a cornmittee of the soliclated in the hancls of a pubiic authority into the conditions of the supply for House of cornmons rvhich in r877 inquircd rvhich had become acLrtetlvelve years extinguishing fires- ern aspect of the question over by the Nletropolitan Board of preuilurly ,rh"., the Fire Brigzrclew'o, t.ken introducecl two Ilills rvhich were part \\rorLr. In the session of 1878 this Boarcl for the purchaseo[ the companies'the of one complete scherne: the first providing a claiiy supp,lyof about 16,000,000 second for obtaining at a cost of f,S,soo,ooo and dietetic by means of lr'ells galions of pure ,pring $,ater for clrinking Purposes

tlaily pLrrposes., For clon.resticpurposes onll', thc ;Lverage r That is, inclucling for clomestic ar-ic1other '-lle on Clark's scale',r head. of the esti'ratecl popr-rlatio.r' harc'ress' suppiy in rgoo \\'as rz.si ;.'"", per Wells I'aries from rS ro 22 clegrecs' rvater derivecl from tlre T|rulo"., Lea, and Chalk