Beginning in 1580, a number of competing London companies sold water directly to consumers through a large network of wooden mains in the expanding metropolis. This new water industry flourished throughout the 1600s, eventually expanding to serve tens of thousands of homes. By the late eighteenth century, more than 80 percent of the city's houses had water connectionsmaking London the best-served metropolis in the world while demonstrating that it was legally, commercially, and technologically possible to run an infrastructure network within the largest city on earth.
In this richly detailed book, historian Leslie Tomory shows how new technologies imported from the Continent, including waterwheel-driven piston pumps, spurred the rapid growth of London's water industry. The business was further sustained by an explosion in consumer demand, particularly in the city's wealthy West End. Meanwhile, several key local innovations reshaped the industry by enlarging the size of the supply network. By 1800, the success of London's water industry made it a model for other cities in Europe and beyond as they began to build their own water networks. The city's water infrastructure even inspired builders of other large-scale urban projects, including gas and sewage supply networks.
The History of the London Water Industry, 15801820 explores the technological, cultural, and mercantile factors that created and sustained this remarkable industry. Tomory examines how the joint-stock form became popular with water companies, providing a stable legal structure that allowed for expansion. He also explains how the roots of the London water industry's divergence from the Continent and even from other British cities was rooted both in the size of London as a market and in the late seventeenth-century consumer revolution. This fascinating and unique study of essential utilities in the early modern period will interest business historians and historians of science and technology alike.
Introduction Technological and industrial change 1.1 London 1.2 Late Medieval and Early Modern Urban Water Supply 1.3 New Water Technology 1.4 A Thirsty City 1.5 Patents 1.6 Peter Morris and the London Bridge Waterworks 1.7 Other Water Entrepreneurs Conclusion 2.1 Corporations and Joint-Stock Companies 2.2 Myddelton's Politics and the New River Company 2.3 Supplying London Conclusion 3.1 Slow Growth and Stabilization, 16251660 3.2 Growth of the New River, 16601700 3.3 Improving and joint-stock companies, 16601700 3.4 New Attempts, 17001730 Conclusion 4.1 The Scale of the New River 4.2 Wren's and Lowthorp's Reports 4.3 Reform of Operations 4.3.1 Maintaining Adequate Supply 4.3.2 The Pipe Network 4.3.3 Controlling Customers 4.3.4 Manufacturing Pipes 4.3.5 Maintenance 4.3.6 Legal Dimension Conclusion 5.1 The Nature of Competition: Dominance of the New River and the LBWW 5.2 The New LBWW to 1750 5.2.1 The Engines 5.2.2 The Water Tower and the Mains 5.2.3 The Employees and Operations 5.3 The LBWW After 1750 Conclusion 6.1 Supplying Houses 6.2 Brewers and Other Large Users 6.3 Geography of Consumption 6.4 Municipal Uses: Fire and Cleaning Conclusion 7.1 The New River Company's Efforts to Maintain Water Quality 7.2 Bathing in the New River Conclusion 8.1 Transformations in London to 1820 8.2 Legacy of the London Water Network Conclusion
""The History of the London Water Industry is a well-written book that will reward anyone interested in the development of urban infrastructure, London's growth as a world city, or the broader innovations surrounding Britain's industrial revolution.""
