Seething Wells

infobox UK place
country = England
map_type = Greater London
region= London
population=
official_name= Seething Wells
latitude= 51.393441
longitude= -0.313103
os_grid_reference= TQ173674
london_borough= Kingston
post_town= SURBITON
postcode_area= KT
postcode_district= KT6
dial_code= 020
constituency_westminster= Kingston & Surbiton

Seething Wells is a locality of Surbiton in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. It is the site of a former water treatment works on the south bank of the River Thames, today being redeveloped.

The Metropolis Water Act of 1852 prohibited the extraction of water for household purposes from the tidal Thames below Teddington Weir. The Lambeth Waterworks Company anticipated this by building their works at Seething Wells which were completed and opened in 1852, the same year as the Act was passed. Another company - the Chelsea Waterworks Company - joined the Lambeth Waterworks Company here. The two establishments existed side by side until they were both incorporated into the Metropolitan Water Board in 1903. However the inlets here sucked up too much mud with the water because of turbulence caused by the River Mole, River Ember and The Rythe. The Lambeth Waterworks Company built a new installation at Molesey, and the Chelsea Waterworks Company, followed them there three years later, after attempting to build works opposite Hampton Court. [ [http://www.moleseyhistory.co.uk/books/surrey/industrialHistory/index.html#D1 A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of the Borough of Elmbridge] ]

ee also

*London water supply infrastructure

References