London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hornsey 1960
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hornsey, Borough of]
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(b) Water from the New River derived from the River Lea at
Ware and from wells along the course of the New River.
This water is treated at the Board's filtration works at
Stoke Newington and Hornsey.
The water supply is in all cases direct to dwelling houses;
none is supplied by means of a stand-pipe. The water supplied to
this area is not plumbo-solvent.
No new sources of supply have been instituted and there have been
no important extensions of trunk mains nor changes in the general
scheme of supply to the Borough.
New mains laid in the Borough during the year amount to 189
yards only. All new as well as repaired mains are chlorinated
before being restored to use and samples of water from them are
tested to ensure that its quality is up to that normally supplied.
Details of the analytical results of the water passing into supply are shown below.
Bacteriological Results of Water Passing into Supply after Chlorination
| No. of samples | Plate counts Average colonies per ml. counted on agar at 37°C after 20-24 hrs. | Coliform test Samples negative in 100 ml. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coliform | E. coli | ||
| River Thames 1,778 | 14.4 | 98.71% | 100.0% |
| New River 515 | 5.2 | 99.42% | 100.0% |
Chemical Examination
104 samples of filtered water derived from the New River and
207 from River Thames derived water were taken for chemical
examination. All were found to be satisfactory. The average
fluoride content in the water supplied to Hornsey was 0.25 parts per
million.
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