"Pump House of Springbank - London, Canada."

Date1907

Dimensions8.9 x 13.8 cm

Credit LineCollection of Museum London, Gift of Mr. G.W. Brown, 1985.

Object number1985.003.006

Label TextIn the 1870s, Londoners expressed concerns about the quality and the quantity of the city's water supply. After years of debates and referenda, in 1877, civic leaders approved construction of the city’s first waterworks at Coombs Springs. Finished in 1879, it featured a pumphouse furnished with turbines, a crib-dam spanning the river, and a 6-million-gallon reservoir atop the nearby 'Reservoir Hill'. Gravity carried the water through pipes into the city. As demand grew, the infrastructure expanded to meet it.

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