Last Updated

07 Jun 2004

By 1870, the company had installed two reservoirs and five filter beds on its 18 acre Battersea site. It was no longer drawing water from the adjacent River Thames, but rather since 1855 had the intake near Hampton, 21 miles upriver.  The reservoirs, filter beds and new intake all greatly improved the quality of its water.  

The Old Ordnance Map of 1870 illustrates the changes in the facility (see below).  The railroad bridge is now shown as the Victoria Bridge, to the east of the Chelsea Suspension Bridge.

 In 1933 the operation of the original Southwark and Vauxhall Water Company, as extended by the Metropolitan Water Board after 1902, ended with the establishment of the Battersea Power Station. Yet it too is no longer in operation, and now remains disused at the edge of the river.  The Chelsea Bridge is still there, as is the rail bridge, but the latter is now the Grosvenor Bridge.  

Finally, a current photo shows where the Southwark and Vauxhall Water Company had been (see left), with the Grosvenor Bridge appearing in the background to the right. 

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Source: Old Ordnance Survey Maps - Battersea and Clapham, 1870.

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