BRIEF HISTORY DURING THE SNOW ERA (1813-58)

Dr. Snow attempted to explain the historical cholera patterns in London following the 1831-2 epidemic.  He assumed that contaminated water was to blame and presented evidence to support his hypothesis.  He noted that the water provided by the New River Company comes from several inputs, including the polluted River Thames. 

"The cholera passed very lightly over most of the districts supplied by the New River Company.  St Giles' was an exception...  The City of London [which received water from the New River Company] also suffered severely in 1832. When the engine at Broken Wharf was employed to draw water from the Thames, this water was supplied more particularly to the City, and not at all to the higher districts supplied by the New River Company."  

- Snow, John. Communication of Cholera, 1855, p. 59-60

More historical reflections on the epidemic of 1831-2 are in part 1 of John Snow's book.  

In the early 1600s, the New River Company constructed a channel to bring water from fresh springs to a pond at New River Head.  Improvements occurred in 1768 when steam power was initially used, in 1805 when water was supplied to first-floor premises, and in 1811 when they replaced wooden pipes with cast-iron.  By 1850, the water input to the company was coming from various springs, the River Lea, assorted wells, and from the River Thames at Broken Wharf.  After 1852, the company was filtering its water.  

The reservoir is not shown on the 1859 map but is located north of "rem" in Claremont Street at the bottom center of F 18.  It is present, however, in the detailed map of 1871.

Broken Wharf is shown as Bro. Wf. in the 1859 map at the bottom center of L 20.   The location is seen more clearly in the 1873 map, although the site had long since been eliminated by New River Company as a source of water.

Finally, in 1856 the New River Company purchased the Hampstead Water Works Company, along with its reservoirs in Hampstead Heath, north of Saint John's Park (A 9) in the 1859 map.  These reservoirs and their water source were described in an 1850 report, A Microscopic Examination of Water Supplied to the Inhabitants of London (author: Arthur Hassal).  At that time, the reservoirs were still owned by the Hampstead Water Works Company.  The author wrote that the water comes from ..."tolerably clean ponds, but also a large pond in the Vale of Health, full of weeds, swarming with animal life, the receptacle of some dead animals, and into which no inconsiderable amount of sewage passes."  

The location of the Hampstead Water Works reservoirs in 1866, by then owned for a decade by the New River Company, is shown below, including Vale of Health in the upper left.   

Source: Weinreb B, Hibbert C (eds). The London Encyclopaedia, 1993.