Parched City (35 page)
Authors: Emma M. Jones
As an ordinary water consumer, I would have been completely unaware of the radical ambitions of the Water Framework Directive without my foray into the professional, jargon-laden spheres of the Environment Agency and the water industry. Understandably, those organisations are the preserve of engineers and other scientists but water, and particularly drinking water, is too critical a natural resource for consumers not be consulted about very openly. The privatisation of the water industry in England and Wales is unlikely to be reversed any time soon, but the boundaries of that private preserve need to be tested so that more scrutiny and dialogue about how that industry relates to the city and its inhabitants can take place for drinking water and other freshwater uses. Behaviour change alone cannot solve problems that are inherently systemic. In my struggle to find a neat ending to tie up this book, I realise that London’s water questions are still far from resolved in the twenty-first century despite incredible progress on some fronts.
London’s private and public drinking water is a vital node in the global freshwater conservation challenges of this century. I can only hope that this contribution to those global conversations offers a springboard for others to dive into these questions and to surface with some fresh suggestions for the future of this city, and for other cities.
Introduction
1
.
The right to water (arts. 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)
, General Comment No.15 (Geneva: United Nations, 2002) p. 5.
2
.
Metered Charges 2012–2013
, document ref11564E 02/11 (Reading: Thames Water, 2011).
3
.
Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2012 Update
(New York: Unicef and World Health Organisation, 2012) p. 2.
4
.
Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update
, Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows and Jorgen Randers (Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company) p. xiv.
5
.
The right to water
.
6
.
Bottled water versus tap water: understanding consumers’ prefer-
ences
, Miguel F. Doria, Journal of Water and Health 04.2 (London: IWA, 2006) p. 273.
7
.
Concrete and Clay: Reworking Nature in New York City
, Matthew Gandy (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2002) p. 22.
8
.
Water and the Search for Public Health in London in the
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
, by Anne Hardy, Medical History, 1984, Vol. 28, p. 250.
9
.
Water Politics in Nineteenth-Century London
, Frank Trentmann and Vanessa Taylor, in
The Making of the Consumer: Knowledge
,
Power and Identity in the Modern World
, Ed. Frank Trentmann (Oxford: Berg, 2006) p. 73.
10
.
Liquid Pleasures: A Social History of Drinks in Modern Britain
, John Burnett (London: Routledge, 1999) p. 27.
CHAPTER ONE
Wells, Conduits and Cordial Waters: drinking water sketches A.D. 43–1800
1
.
To the honourable assembly of the Commons: The humble petition
of the whole companie of the poore water-tankerd-bearers of the citie of London, Robert Tardy water-bearer followes this petition
, 1621, Guildhall Library.
2
.
London before London gallery, Dividing the spoils (150–700 BC)
, Museum of London,
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/lbl/pages/sectionDetails.asp?sid=5
, Accessed 8
th
August 2012.
3
. River god, marble, Mid–2
nd
century, Museum of London Roman gallery, November 2010.
4
.
Excavations in the Middle Walbrook Valley
, Special Paper 13, Tony Wilmott (London: Museum of London and the Middlesex Archaeological Society, 1991) p. 14.
5
. Ibid. p. 174.
6
.
Water Supply in the Roman City of London
, Tony Wilmott, London Archaeologist vol. 4 no.9, winter 1982, p. 241.
7
.
Ten Books on Architecture
, Vitruvius, Eds. Ingrid D. Rowland and Thomas Noble (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999) p. 96.
8
. Ibid. p. 98.
9
. Ibid. p. 102.
10
. Interview with Jenny Hall, formerly Senior Curator of Roman London collection, 26
th
November 2010.
11
.
Water Supply
, Wilmott, p. 240.
12
.
Water Supply
1
st
–2
nd
century, Roman London gallery, case 10, Museum of London, November 2010.
13
.
Roman London
, Peter Marsden (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980) p. 62.
14
.
Excavations in the Middle Walbrook Valley
, Wilmott, p. 176 /
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Collections-Research/Research/Your-Research/Londinium/analysis/romanlon-doners/population/Estimating+the+population.htm
, Accessed 3
rd
May 2012.
15
.
Ten Books on Architecture
, p.101.
16
.
Working Water: Roman Technology in Action
, Ian Blair and
Jenny Hall (London: Museum of London, 2003) pp. 16–17.
17
. Ibid. p.9.
18
.
Roman London’s amphitheatre
(London: Guildhall Art Gallery, 2005) p. 2, downloaded from gallery website 3
rd
May 2012.
19
.
Working Water
, p. 42.
20
.
Public Baths:
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Collections-Research/Research/Your-Research/Londinium/analysis/publiclife/structures/16+baths.htm
, Accessed 3
rd
May 2012.
21
.
Aspects of Saxo-Norman London: 2 Finds and Environmental
Evidence
, Special Paper 12, Ed. Alan Vince (London: London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, 1991) p. 411.
22
. Interview with Jenny Hall, Museum of London.
23
.
Food and Drink in Britain: From Stone Age to Recent Times
, C. Anne Wilson (Middlesex: Penguin, 1984) p. 332.
24
.
Aspects of Saxo-Norman London
, p. 413.
25
.
Our History
, Westminster Abbey,
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/benedictine-monastery
, Accessed 3
rd
May 2012.
26
.
The Medieval Household: Medieval Finds from Excavations in
London
(London: Museum of London, 1998) p. 242.
27
.
The London Encyclopaedia
, Eds. Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert (Oxford: Macmillan, 1995) p. 178.
28
. Ibid. p. 630.
29
.
A Survey of London
, John Stow, Reprinted from the text of 1603, Volume 1 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908) p. 15.
30
.
Holywell Priory and the development of Shoreditch to c1600:
archaeology from the London Overground East London Line
(London: MOLA, 2011), Book description of Museum of London website confirms foundation date of the nunnery:
http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/Publications/pubDetails.htm?pid=129
, Accessed 25
th
July 2012 /
The
Medieval Nunnery at Clerkenwell
, David Sturdy, The London Archaeologist Winter 1974, Vol.2 No.9, p. 218.
31
.
The Reformation of the Landscape: Religion, Identity and Memory in Early Modern Britain and Ireland
, Alexandra Walsham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) p. 51.
32
. Ibid. References in the above text suggest the twin function of external and internal water use, such as on p. 50 and p. 70
33
.
Survey of London
p. 18.
34
. Ibid. p. 16.
35
.
Water Supply of Greater London
, H.W. Dickinson (London: Newcomen Society, 1954) p. 8.
36
. Notes on The Great Conduit, Museum of London Archaeological Society website:
http://www.molas.org.uk/pages/siteDetails.asp?siteID=ngt00_3
, Accessed 3
rd
May 2012
37
.
Survey of London
p. 17.
38
.
The London Encyclopaedia
, p. 147.
39
.
Water: the book: an illustrated history of water supply and waste-
water in the United Kingdom
, Hugh Barty-King (Shrewsbury: Quiller Press, 1992) p. 33.
40
.
The Archaeology of Medieval London
, Christopher Thomas (Gloucestershire: Sutton, 2002) pp. 73–4.
41
.
A Survey of London
p. 16.
42
. Medieval Life, Museum of London pocket histories,
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Explore-online/Pocket-histories/Medieval-life/
, Accessed 3rd May 2012.
43
.
Sweet and Wholesome Water: Five Centuries of Water-Bearers in the City of London
, Ted Flaxman and Ted Jackson (Cottisford: E.W. Flaxman, 2004) p. 32.
44
.
Memorials of London Life in the 13
th
, 14
th
and 15
th
centuries:
being a series of extracts, local, social, and political, from the early archives of the City of London, A.D. 1276–1419
, Henry T. Riley (London: Longmans, Green for the Corporation of London, 1868), Letter Book F: 1337.
45
.
Excavations at Watling Court, Part Two: Late Roman to Modern
, London Archaeologist Autumn 1982, Vol. 4 No. 8.
46
.
London Assize of Nuisance 1301–1431: A Calendar
, Edited by Helena M. Chew and William Kellaway (London: London Record Society, 1973) pp. 160, 616.
47
.
Chronicles of London
, Edited with introduction and notes by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905) p. 108.
48
.
A Survey of London
p. 17.
49
.
Chronicles of London
, p. 301.
50
.
A Survey of London
p. 17.
51
.
From conduit community to commercial network? Water in
London, 1500–1725
, Mark S.R. Jenner, in
Londonopolis: Essays in the Cultural and Social History of Early Modern London
, Eds. Pauls Griffiths and Mark S.R. Jenner (Manchester: Manchester University Press) p. 250.
52
. Ibid. pp. 256, 259.
53
.
Sweet and Wholesome Water
p. 17.
54
.
The English Spa: A Social History 1560–1815
, Phyllis Hembry (London: Athlone Press, 1990) p. 2.
55
.
The Reformation of the Landscape
p. 397.
56
.
A compendyous regyment; or, A dyetary of helth made in
Mountpyllier compiled by Andrew Boorde of physycke Doctour
(London: Early English Text Society, 1870) pp. 252–253.
57
. Ibid. p. 53.
58
.
From conduit community to commercial network?
p. 252.
59
. Ibid.
60
.
A Survey of London
p. 18.
61
.
The Givernment of Britain 1509–1714
, Vol.V 42, (London: Her Majesty’s Stationer, 1580), State Papers Online: PC 2/13 f.71, British Library.
62
. London Bridge Waterworks Company: Corporate Records, Administrative History description for records ACC/2558/LB/01, London Metropolitan Archives.
63
.
A Survey of London
p. 18.
64
.
Water Supply of Greater London
, pp.16–17.
65
.
Copy of New River Charter 1606
, ACC/2558/NR/01/059, London Metropolitan Archives.
66
.
Water: the book: an illustrated history of water supply and waste-water in the United Kingdom
, p. 50.
67
.
Copy of New River Charter 1606
.
68
.
London’s New River
, Robert Ward (London: Historical Publications, 2003) p. 57.
69
.
To the Honourable Assembly of the Commons. The humble petition of the whole companie of the poore water-tankerd-bearers of the citie of London. Robert Tardy water-bearer followes this petition
, 1621, Guildhall Library archives.
70
.
From conduit community to commercial network?
p. 254.
71
. Ibid.
72
. Testimony from Thomas Duncomb, 1677, COL/SJ/16/021, London Metropolitan Archives.
73
. Ibid.
74
.
From conduit community to commercial network?
p. 264.
75
.
Second Treatise on Civil Government: An Essay concerning the true and original extent and end of civil government
, John Locke, in
Social Contract:
Essays by Locke, Hume and Rousseau (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971) pp. 23–24.
76
. Ibid.
77
.
The Reformation of the Landscape
p. 398.
78
.
The English Spa
p. 43.
79
.
The Pump Room, Bath: Bath’s hot spa water
, (Bath: Bath and North East Somerset Council, 2011) Pamphlet reference: DP 584 06/11 S.
80
.
The English Spa
p. 176.
81
. Ibid. p. 367.
82
.
Spas, Wells and Pleasure Gardens
James Stevens Curl (London: Historical Publications, 2010) p. 92.
83
. Ibid. p. 127.
84
.
The Compleat Housewife or Accomplished Gentlewoman’s
Companion
, E. Smith (London: J ¦ J Pemberton, 1737) p. 254.
85
.
Cures and Curiosities: Inside the Wellcome Library
, (London: Profile Books/The Wellcome Trust, 2007) pp. 35–37.
86
.
The Compleat Housewife or Accomplished Gentlewoman’s
Companion
pp. 258, 261 and 270–1.
87
.
Liquid Pleasures: A Social History of Drinks in Modern Britain
, John Burnett (London: Routledge, 1999) p. 162.
88
. Image number p5448722: Collage online gallery, City of London Corporation,
http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage
, Accessed 23
rd
November 2011.
89
.
Water and the search for public health in London in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
, Anne Hardy, Medical History Vol. 28 1984, Wellcome Library, pp. 250–282.
90
.
An Essay on Waters in three parts
, C.Lucas @#[email protected]. (London: Printed for A. Millar in the Strand, 1756) pp. xxi–xxii.
91
. Ibid. p. 138.
92
.
Water and the search for public health in London in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
p. 256.
93
.
The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science
, Eds. RC Olby, GN Cantor, JR Christie and MJS Hodge (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) p. 147.
94
.
Water: the book: an illustrated history of water supply and waste-
water in the United Kingdom
p. 71.
95
.
A Short Account of a New Method of Filtration by Ascent
, James Peacock (London: James Peacock of Finsbury Square, 1793) p. 3.
96
. Ibid. p. 11.