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is made compulsory by the Company, on outside stop-valves being
fixed; 2,763 houses were put on constant supply during the year, the
number of houses on constant supply being 23,256 out of a total of
69,908.
The Grand Junction Company was giving constant supply to 41,581
houses out of a total of 53,831; the increase during the year was 1,088.
The system has been extended to North Kensington.
The Chelsea Company was giving constant supply to 5,961 houses (increase
during the past year 801), out of a total of 34,251. This Company is
the only one of the eight Metropolitan Water Companies which has
given no notice of its intention to substitute a constant for an intermittent
supply under the provisions of the Act of 1871.
Judging from the few applications made for constant supply, there appears
to be little desire on the part of the public authorities, or private
individuals, in any of the districts, for the continuous service; but all
new estates and new lines of streets are being so supplied voluntarily.
By way of comparison it may be mentioned that the East London
Waterworks Company now gives constant supply to 137,859, out of a
total of 160,252 houses supplied, and containing an estimated population
of 1,198,040 persons.
The percentage of house supplies on the constant system in each local
Company's district, Dec. 31st, 1887, was, Chelsea, 17 per cent.; West
Middlesex, 33 per cent.; and Grand Junction, 77 per cent. In the
East London District the percentage is as high as 86. But considerable
advance was made duriDg the past year in London as a whole, in
extending the constant supply; 375,076 out of the total number of
733,161 houses supplied, or 51 per cent., being now on constant service,
an increase of 28,385 during the year.
In general the constant supply system, so far as it extends, seems to have
been introduced voluntarily by the Companies and not at the instance
of local authorities or inhabitants. It may therefore be assumed that
it conduces on the whole to economy in the use of water.
The number of miles of streets containing mains constantly charged, and
on which hydrants for fire extinguishing purposes could at once be
fixed, in the districts of the local Companies was, in December, West
Middlesex, 110¾; Grand Junction, 83; and Chelsea, 75½. The Companies
are ready to affix hydrants on the mains whenever required to
do so. In the Metropolis there were 10,544 hydrants, the total length
of mains constantly charged being 1,113 miles, and the total mileage of
water pipes being 3,139. The increase in number of hydrants in 1887
was 1,367.