The Mercenary River: Private Greed, Public Good — A History of London’s Water

Abstract

Unlike previous histories of London’s water supply, which cover legal and organisational structures as well as physical infrastructure, this substantial book charts the changing interaction between Londoners, their water supply, and those responsible for it. At the heart of this interaction are two opposed human impulses: we wish to acquire and retain wealth so that we can live in comfort yet, as participants in a society, we feel that all its members should receive life’s necessities and we agree to give up some of our wealth to discharge that social obligation. On one hand, we can establish public bodies to discharge that obligation and delegate citizens to oversee them, yet then be reluctant to fund them adequately or to call corrupt