Chelsea Waterworks Company

Chelsea Waterworks Company
Industry	Water supply
Founded	1723 in London, UK
Defunct	June 24, 1904
Fate	Municipalised
Successor	Metropolitan Water Board

The Chelsea Waterworks Company was a London waterworks company founded in 1723 which supplied water to many central London locations throughout the 18th and 19th centuries until its functions were taken over by the Metropolitan Water Board in 1904.^[1]

The company was established "for the better supplying the City and Liberties of Westminster and parts adjacent with water" ^[1] and received a royal charter on 8 March 1723.^[2] The company created extensive ponds in the area bordering Chelsea and Pimlico using water from the tidal Thames. These were to form the basis of the Grosvenor Canal which was opened to traffic in 1825. By the 19th century there were complaints about the quality of the water they were drawing from the River Thames, and in 1829, under engineer James Simpson the company became the first in the country to install a slow sand filtration system to purify the water.^[3]

The Metropolis Water Act 1852 (15 & 16 Vict. c. 84) prohibited the extraction of water for household purposes from the River Thames below Teddington Lock. The company moved to Seething Wells above the lock at Surbiton in 1856 becoming the last water company to move their inlets above the polluted tidal water zone.^[3] The site was adjacent to the Lambeth Waterworks Company, who had already moved there and who also employed Simpson. The vacated site at Pimlico was used by the railway companies to build lines into west London and London Victoria Station was built on the site of much of the Grosvenor Canal basin.

The inlets at Seething Wells sucked up too much mud with the water because of turbulence caused by the River Mole, River Ember and The Rythe. The Chelsea Waterworks Company attempted to build works opposite Hampton Court but followed the Lambeth Waterworks Company to a new installation at Molesey in 1875 where the Molesey Reservoirs were built.^[4] Both companies were incorporated into the Metropolitan Water Board in 1902.

References

^ ^a ^b The London Encyclopaedia, Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert, Macmillan, 1995, ISBN 0-333-57688-8
^ Royal Charters, Privy Council website Archived 2007-08-24 at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b History of the Chelsea Waterworks
^ A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of the Borough of Elmbridge

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[London_Encyclopaedia-1] The London Encyclopaedia, Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert, Macmillan, 1995, ISBN 0-333-57688-8

[2] Royal Charters, Privy Council website Archived 2007-08-24 at the Wayback Machine

[History_of_the_Chelsea_Waterworks-3] History of the Chelsea Waterworks

[4] A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of the Borough of Elmbridge

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v t e Thames Water
History	John Backhouse Joseph Bazalgette Edmund Colthurst Great Stink London sewer system London water supply Metropolitan Board of Works Metropolitan Water Board Hugh Myddelton William Chadwell Mylne New River Company New River John Snow William Webster 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak
Major projects	Abingdon Reservoir Thames Tideway Scheme, including Thames Tideway Tunnel and Lee Tunnel Thames Gateway Water Treatment Works Thames Water Ring Main
Infrastructure	Abbey Mills Pumping Station Beckton Sewage Treatment Works Coppermills Water Treatment Works Cricklewood Pumping Station Crossness Pumping Station Crossness Sewage Treatment Works Deephams Sewage Treatment Works Greenwich pumping station Hampton Water Treatment Works Mogden Sewage Treatment Works Walton water treatment works
Reservoirs	Banbury Reservoir Bath Road Reservoir Bessborough Reservoir Chingford Reservoirs East Warwick Reservoir Farmoor Reservoir Grimsbury Reservoir High Maynard Reservoir Island Barn Reservoir Kempton Park Reservoirs King George V Reservoir King George VI Reservoir Knight Reservoir Lee Valley Reservoir Chain Lockwood Reservoir Low Maynard Reservoir Molesey Reservoirs Queen Elizabeth II Reservoir Queen Mary Reservoir Queen Mother Reservoir Stain Hill Reservoirs Staines Reservoirs Sunnyside Reservoir Tilehurst Water Tower Walthamstow Reservoirs West Warwick Reservoir William Girling Reservoir Wraysbury Reservoir