West Middlesex Waterworks Company


The West Middlesex Waterworks Company was a utility company supplying water to parts of West London in England. The company was established in 1806 with works at Hammersmith and became part of the publicly owned Metropolitan [Water Board (London)|Metropolitan Water Board] in 1904.

Origins

The West Middlesex Waterworks Company was founded by serial entrepreneur Ralph Dodd in 1806 to supply water to parts of West London, including Marylebone and Paddington, in the counties of Middlesex and Surrey from the River Thames.
On 12 July 1806, the Company of Proprietors of the West Middlesex Water Works was incorporated by the West Middlesex Waterworks Act 1806. The act authorised the proprietors of the West Middlesex Waterworks Company to raise £30,000, divided into shares of £100 each, with power to raise a further sum of £50,000.
In 1808 the company installed cast iron pipes to supply water from its intakes at Hammersmith.

Infrastructure

The water company established a 3.5 million gallon reservoir at Campden Hill near Notting Hill just west of Central London. Soon after, in 1825 the company built a new reservoir at Barrow Hill next to Primrose Hill just north of Central London. In the 1850s the quality of drinking water in London was connected to poor public health. John Snow examined the state of waters in 1849 and noted that the West Middlesex was less subject to cholera because its intakes were upstream and it had large reservoirs. The Metropolis Water Act 1852 was enacted under the conclusions of a report of the Metropolitan Water Board "to make provision for securing the supply to the Metropolis of pure and wholesome water". Under the act it became unlawful for any water company to extract water for domestic use from the tidal reaches of the Thames after 31 August 1855, and from 31 December 1855 all such water was required to be "effectually filtered". The company closed the Hammersmith site and new pumping works were established between Sunbury and Molesey Locks at Hampton. The Hampton facility was completed in 1855 and was shared with the Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company and the Grand Junction Waterworks Company.