In 1852, the Metropolitan Water
Act was passed, mandating that water companies move their intakes above Teddington Lock into the non-tidal region of the River Thames. Fortunate for the Lambeth Waterworks Company, by the time
the legislation was enacted, their building process was completed, and they
became the first water company to comply with the Act.
The figure below shows the new location of the Lambeth
intake, 22 miles upriver from the old site. Snow's 1854 map
2 extends south from the River Thames, but not far enough to identify the
upriver site. The 1859 Reynolds's map of London
also does not show the new site, as seen in the shaded area below.
The River Thames is
tidal. Water moves back and forth to the ocean with the incoming and outgoing tides. The tidal
water at Hungerford Bridge where the Lambeth company intake had been located was often polluted, with
back and forth
motion of the river and too many people disposing sewage and other debris.
FRESH WATER
The upper region of the River Thames, where
the Lambeth company relocated its intake, had fresh water. Eventually the
fresh water would come in contact with the tidal water, but closer to London.
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At the town of Teddington the river is barred by a line of sluice-gates.
These gates are the Teddington Weir (or dam -- see arrow). Accompanying
the weir is a lock which allows boats to move from one side of the weir to the other.
Here the tidal Thames, with polluted water mixed with sea water, is
separated from fresh water of the upper Thames.
Two miles further against the current of the river is
Kingston-upon Thames, the scene of the coronation of Saxon kings a thousand
years earlier. Then after a few more miles comes Seething Wells, by Thames
Ditton (just to the left of the bottom of the map, not seen. It is here that the Lambeth
Waterworks Company established its new intake (see arrow at bottom section of
map).
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Two miles further against the current of the river is
Kingston-upon Thames, the scene of the coronation of Saxon kings a thousand
years earlier. Then after a few more miles comes Seething Wells, by Thames
Ditton (just to the left of the bottom of the map, not seen). It is here that the Lambeth
Waterworks Company established its new intake (see arrow at bottom section of
map).
MAP
Click here for more information on the Seething Wells site |
The scene below is of the Lambeth Waterworks Company in
1851, soon to be in operation with a new water intake and facility.
THOUGHTS OF SNOW
John Snow had thoughts of his own about the River
Thames, useful for understanding the situation. In part
3 of his book he wrote: "The Thames in London is
a very large body of water, and if the whole of it flowed away into the sea
every day, the liquid which flows down the sewers in twelve hours would form but
a very small part of it; but it must be remembered that the quantity of water
which passes out to sea, with the ebb of every tide, is only equal to that which
flows over Teddington Lock, and from a few small tributary streams."
He goes on to write, "... the river becomes a kind of prolonged lake, the same water passing twice
a day to and fro through London, and receiving the excrement of its two millions
and more of inhabitants, which keeps accumulating till there is a fall of rain.
In time of cholera, the evacuations of the patients keep accumulating in the
river along with the other impurities..."
- Snow, p. 95, 1855
With the new intake, the Lambeth Waterworks Company hoped
to avoid such calamity.
 Return to Map of Water Companies
Sources:
Elmbridge Museum, Weybridge, Surrey, 2000.
Graham-Leigh J. London's Water Wars, 2000.
Snow J. Mode of Communication
of Cholera, 1st ed, 1849.
Snow J. On the
Mode of
Communication of Cholera, 2nd ed, 1855.
Wilson
D G. The Victorian Thames, 1993.
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