Report of the Health of London Association on the sanitary condition of the metropolis; : being a digest of the information contained in the replies returned to three thousand lists of queries, which were circulated amongst clergymen, medical men, solicitors, surveyors, architects, engineers, parochial officers, and the public.

  • Health of Towns Association (London, England)
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Health of London Association on the sanitary condition of the metropolis; : being a digest of the information contained in the replies returned to three thousand lists of queries, which were circulated amongst clergymen, medical men, solicitors, surveyors, architects, engineers, parochial officers, and the public. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    50/70 (page 48)
    pulation of 315,000 ; the mains are kept constantly filled night and day, and cisterns are used to a very limited extent. Mr. Joseph Quick, engineer of the Southwark Water Company, says, that every tenement in the district might be supplied with a constant supply of water at the additional expense of 1 Jd. weekly, which expense would be more than saved in the abolition of butts and cisterns.* The extra cost of pumping, to raise the water to the highest points for which it is ordinarily required, is stated by Mr. Hawksley to be very slight. Mr. Wickstead is of opinion that larger mains would be required for the constant supply, but other engineers of equal eminence remark, that as smaller pipes are required for the tenants’ supply under this system, smaller mains will suffice. It is absurd to suppose that all the pipes would be discharging water at the same time, as the advocates for the present method of supply have suggested, and which they say must be provided against, by laying larger and more expensive mains. Mr. Hawksley says it is quite possible to engraft the constant supply on the present system in London without much additional expense. Water, it has been ob¬ served, is an article of that importance, that it becomes the duty of the government to see that as full a supply as possi¬ ble be given to the community. I . -v • ' • f . ' ’ [28.] Would it not be advantageous if all dwelling houses,, capable of being benefited by an ample supply of water, were rated in the same way as for sewage and other local purposes ? The answers to this question have generally been in the affirmative ; some gentlemen, however, have stated that the subject requires some consideration. It has been remarked that the municipality should contract, in the first instance, for a supply of water, and competition should be entered into then, and not afterwards ; and that the expense should be defrayed by a general rate on all the inhabitants. It should be imperative upon every company to supply each house with water, which would so considerably reduce its cost to the people as to become a real economy. [29.] Are the present water companies sufficiently under the control of Government ? * The estimated cost of the receptacles for containing water, as butts, cisterns? &c., in London, amounts to £2,000,000.