This is a view from a bench opposite the water works. The float hit one of the pipes here. The water works at Seething Wells were built in 1852 after an act forced Water companies to supply water to London from the cleaner non-tidal Thames. The water works is closed now, but it used to supply Chelsea and Lambeth. Today the river supplies most Londoners with drinking water via the enormous Thames ring main which runs 40 metres underground near here. I asked an engineer who worked on the project to explain the new system.