Twentieth Century
The private water companies were nationalised at the beginning of the 20th century. The Metropolis Water Act 1902 (2 Edw.7, c.41) created the Metropolitan Water Board. It was founded in 1903 and as originally constituted in the Act had 67 members; 65 of these were nominated by local authorities, who appointed a paid chairman and vice-chairman. The board compulsorily acquired the following water companies:
- The New River Company
- The East London Waterworks Company
- The Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company
- The West Middlesex Waterworks Company
- The Lambeth Waterworks Company
- The Chelsea Waterworks Company
- The Grand Junction Waterworks Company
- The Staines Reservoirs Joint Committee
Also acquired at no cost were the water undertakings of Tottenham and Enfield Urban District Councils.
The MWB opened the East London Waterworks reservoirs Banbury Reservoir and Lockwood Reservoir, and the Bessborough Reservoir, Knight Reservoir and Island Barn Reservoirs at Molesey. It also opened the Kempton Park Reservoirs in around 1907.
In 1910, extraction facilities were opened at Hythe End and the Staines Reservoir Aqueduct was built to supply water to Hampton. The Metropolitan Water Board Railway was opened in 1916 to carry coal from the river at Hampton to Kempton Park. An engine house with powerful steam engines was opened at Kempton Park in 1929, which has now become Kempton Park Steam Engines museum.
The MWB opened a succession of reservoirs - King George V Reservoir, (Lea Valley) in 1912, Queen Mary Reservoir (Ashford) in 1925, King George VI Reservoir (Stanwellmoor) in 1947 William Girling Reservoir (Lea Valley) in 1951, Queen Elizabeth II Reservoir (Molesey) 1962, Wraysbury Reservoir 1967, and Queen Mother Reservoir (Staines) 1976.
The Metropolitan Water Board and other local Water Boards were later combined into the Thames Water Authority, which was later privatized as Thames Water, a state-regulated private company which currently provides London's water supply.
Read more about this topic: London Water Infrastructure
Famous quotes related to twentieth century:
“The real passion of the twentieth century is servitude.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we’ve developed to a very high level is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything.”
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)
“Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the twentieth century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press.”
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918)
“Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“The descendants of Holy Roman Empire monarchies became feeble-minded in the twentieth century, and after World War I had been done in by the democracies; some were kept on to entertain the tourists, like the one they have in England.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)