Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

196 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. VIEW ON NEW RIVER AT HOE LANE PUMPING STATION. In the foreground is one of the iron punts used by the walksmen who patrol the aqueduct. the districts north of the Thames ; the Kent, South- wark and Vauxhall, and Lambeth Companies the districts on the south side. In 1904 all the companies were bought out by the Metropolitan Water Board, established in 1902 to con- trol the whole area, which is now divided into five districts—the Eastern, New River, Western, Southern, and Kent. (See map, p. 197.) As at present con- stituted, the Eastern dis- trict depends for its supply on the Lee, on eleven wells in the Lee Valley, and upon water drawn from the Thames at Sunbury and pumped through 36 - inch corporation of the East London Waterworks Company, and 1809 that of the Kent Water- works Company. The Grand Junction Water- works, for the supply of Paddington, Maryle- bone, and adjacent parishes, date from 1811. Thus in the course of four successive years four important schemes materialized, and now London had a prospect of being supplied with an adequate volume of water for all purposes. The Vauxhall Waterworks Company, estab- lished at Vauxhall Bridge in 1805, and the Southwark Waterworks Company, formed at London Bridge in 1822, amalgamated in 1845. It would be of little interest to review the gradual extension of the eight companies named above, which eventually parcelled out the area of what is known as Water London. Until re- cently the New River, Chel- sea, East London, West Mid- dlesex, and Grand Junction Companies, and the waterworks belonging to the Tottenham and Enfield Urban District Councils, supplied The Metropolitan Water Board. mains to reservoirs at Finsbury Park. The New River district is fed by the river Lee, a spring at Chadwell, 18 wells in the Lee valley, and the Thames. The Western depends al- most entirely on the Thames ; the Southern on the Thames for about 97 per cent, of its supply, the rest being obtained from wells. The Kent district is peculiar in being sup- plied solely from eighteen wells in the chalk and one in the greensand. Some of the wells in this area are extraordinarily productive. Productive Wells. Nine furnish between them nearly 15,000,000 gallons a day. In depth, however, they do not approach the well at Streatham, which pene- trates 89 strata, and is 1,270 feet deep. The amount of water obtainable daily from this well was at one time about 2,000,000 gallons. The private wells sunk and used in the Water London area contribute only very slightly to the total figures. The water, whatever be its source, is pumped when ready for consumption to service reser-