please empty your brain below
The one oddity of S&ES Water that I found when I moved to the area is that some - but not all - of their water is softened. Such that I moved a mile down the road and the hardness measuring strip went down by two levels. Really strange. Oh well, it's good for the kettle and the coffee machine.

Chz | 14.12.23 - 8:22 a.m. | #

I'd be interested to find out where the exact Thames/Essex & Suffolk boundary lies. I'm in northern Redbridge, about a mile-and-a-half east of the River Roding, but my water supply and sewage is all dealt with by Thames Water.

Alan S | 14.12.23 - 8:40 a.m. | #

The London Infrastructure Map (displaying 'Supply District Metering Area') suggests the boundary departs from the Roding in Ilford and then follows the main road to Gants Hill, Barkingside and Fulwell Cross.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 14.12.23 - 8:46 a.m. | #

The map shows Essex & Suffolk doesn't quite hit the Thames borough boundary, is this because the river is wider than the line drawing by then? Or are the lucky residents of Barking Riverside going to be Thames water customers?

A quick check of some postcodes suggests Leep Networks Ltd as supplier - who don't appear on the map at all

TomH | 14.12.23 - 8:46 a.m. | #

...it's inaccurate drawing.
The Thames estuary is the boundary.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 14.12.23 - 8:49 a.m. | #

I’m in Hornchurch, water from Essex & Suffolk , sewage by Thames Water both companies for ever digging up the roads & pavement. Havering Council may cut putting up the Christmas Lights next year.
Sill never mind we will still have the forest of temporary traffic lights to brighten up the streets at this time of year.

Robert | 14.12.23 - 8:50 a.m. | #

The old pre-privatisation electricity map also always used to confuse me, with much of north London coming under Eastern Electricity rather than London (LEB).

Mikey C | 14.12.23 - 8:51 a.m. | #

Bonkers!

Southern Heights (Light Railway) | 14.12.23 - 9:01 a.m. | #

Great investigative work.

Your investigations of the capital's water supplies reminds me of the investigations John Snow undertook in the 1850s during the cholera epidemic.

He also produced some interesting maps of London's water supply. Not sure how they overlap with your contemporary maps.

Ridgeway Users | Homepage | 14.12.23 - 9:44 a.m. | #

It looks like the Affinity/Thames Water boundary in Barnet follows the border of the old Metropolitan Borough of Finchley.

I've never quite been able to figure out the history there.

Mnatbog | 14.12.23 - 9:49 a.m. | #

Anyone interested in the history of London's water supply might enjoy reading The Mercenary River by Nick Higham. DG wrote a review of the book some time ago.

Joachim | 14.12.23 - 10:45 a.m. | #

Expect to see Thames Water and its commercial overlord Castle Water get bailed out via the taxpayer in the near future. Happy Christmas to them both, and their shareholders.
Bah humbug!

Digger50 | 14.12.23 - 11:23 a.m. | #

Mikey C: And North Thames Gas went south of the Thames to serve part of Battersea.

Jonathan Wadman | 14.12.23 - 11:51 a.m. | #

Not bonkers at all, Southern Heights (Light Railway). Water supply and sewage disposal is largely based on geography and topography, not human-built infrastructure. It's illogical to divide up a water-supply system because there's a set of boundaries, ultimately derived from church parishes in the pre-conquest era.

AlanBG | 14.12.23 - 12:35 p.m. | #

There will be individual properties and pockets who don't have a sewerage connection at all, using septic tank instead.

More likely in rural districts but not impossible in more urban ones.

I wonder if local authorities have the legal right to insist on sewerage connection or whether a developer could choose other severwage approaches compliance with general building control regs. (water connection is part of legal definition of habitable I think)

MilesT | 14.12.23 - 1:03 p.m. | #

Genuinely amazed to find that the whole of London isn't covered by Thames Water. I've never even heard of Affinity Water.

Sean | 14.12.23 - 4:11 p.m. | #

Privatisation of public utilities still a roaring success then?

Ian | 14.12.23 - 5:04 p.m. | #

I worked for Thames Water, before and after privatisation. While a 'competent publicly owned authority' would be good, it's not the whole answer. In the 1980s, the Thatcher government forced TWA to cut investment and increase prices to raise money for the Treasury. One of the arguments for privatisation was that investment would not be limited by the public sector borrowing ceiling. The government must commit to providing a good public service through effective regulation, whatever the ownership.

Michael | 15.12.23 - 7:24 a.m. | #

Here in Cheshunt Hertfordshire we are served by Thames Water. A small new housing estate currently being built locally (and surrounded by the Thames Water area) will have water and sewerage services supplied to the households by a company called Icosa Water. As far as I can gather Icosa, in turn, buys bulk water supply and sewerage services from Thames Water. As a monopoly supplier is forced by geographical circumstance to buy its services from another monopoly supplier, I am at a loss to understand how the consumer benefits from this arrangement.

HW | 15.12.23 - 7:12 p.m. | #











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