This is Why English Homes Have Two Taps (& How to Adapt) (2024)

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to the UK, is that the bathrooms have two taps. It’s an odd thing to pick up on but I guess when you are used to having mixed taps in your home country its something you need to get used to.

Thisis why English homes have two taps – IntheUK, there’s alaw thatprohibits mixing cold water and hot water from theirseparateboilers, one for coldwater in the attic for drinking and one for hot water downstairs which is notdrinkable.

Using London as an example, and with a littledetective work, we can create a picture of how London’s water system wasdeveloped, along with major issues involved, in the last few hundred years. Thiswill answer the question of how they ended up with two faucets.

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Why do UK Houses Have Water Tanks?

The reason for thetwo water tanks istoprevent any used cleaning waterfrom thehouse(possiblycontaminated) flowing back into the cold drinking water.

How to use British taps

There are really only two simplemethods:

1. Plug the sink, fill it with bothhot and cold water to get to your preferred temperature, and then wash in thiswater.
2. Open bothtapsatthe same time, move your hands really fast between both of them and, if you doit quickly enough, you can sort of get the water mixed.

Why are Cold Taps on the Right?

The simple answer to this question is that most people are right–handed, and thecold tapis used the most. So, therefore, the hottapis on the left.

Where does London’s Drinking Water Come From?

Themajority of London’s drinking water, almost 70% in total, is retrieved fromreservoirs outside the city, which have collected water directly from theThames River.

Afterbeing treated at facilities to ensure removal of any harmful elements, it istransported through one mammoth feeder pipe to smaller reservoirs around thecity’s perimeter, after which it is fed through a web of piping directly toresidential homes and building throughout London.

So,what about the remaining 30% of drinking water? This is the other percentage ofdrinking water which is retrieved from boreholes that access groundwaterdirectly and pump it to the surface. Itthen goes through the same treatment and pipe system and combines to reach thecity.

On a typical day in London, this water system provides over 2,100 million litres of drinking water, which doubles during hot spells.

How is London’s Sewer Water Treated?

Whenyou flush a toilet or drain your sink, the used water goes down a drainpipe andtravels out into the larger system of sewer pipes under the roads of London.

Localsewers then join a larger web of sewer pipes and wastewater finally reaches toa sewage treatment facility – sometimes by drainage and sometimes by pumping.

Thenthe first stage of purifying wastewater involves removing large objects that coulddamage equipment or present pollution to local waterways.

After this separation, wastewater still contains organic solid matter, meaning human waste. The following stage separates this solid waste from the remaining water. This is done by pumping the water into large settlement tanks, where it settles for a determined amount of time. Separation occurs during this process, which causes the solids to sink to the bottom of the tank.

At this stage, even though the visible bits of sludge and solid waste have been removed, it is still most important to ensure that the smaller and sometimes invisible nasty bugs are also taken out.

After that second treatment, the final wastewater is then passed through the last settlement tank, where the good bacteria sink to the bottom.In the end, the final clean water is pumped over a separation wall near the top of the tank and out into the waterways.

Residential Plumbing Design in London

Englandhas had a long and rich history with all things related to the bathroom. Thereare still unused sewers from the Romans underground, as well as visibleremnants of Roman walls above ground.

Bathhousesused to be in operation along the Thames River until the fifteenth century,then individual bathrooms began as early as the 1700s and evolved intoelaborate bathrooms by the Victorian Period in the late 1800s.

Anotherall-important device was invented in England at this time by Thomas Crapper,which represented another function of water use that needed to be addressed.

It’sobvious that, by the 1800s, Londoners required both hot and cold water daily intheir own homes. Plumbing pipes, water heaters, and fixtures accommodated thisstarting then and continuing to the present.

However,with London’s unhealthy past related to drinking water and wastewater, a casecould be made that Brits prefer two taps and separate water tanks to ensurethey will never have to deal with water-related illnesses again.

Short History of UK Residential Water

Thereal boom of innovative water companies providing water to London’s residentialdistricts took place in the 1700s and 1800s. There was a boom in modernizationas homeowners demanded clean and ultra-convenient water for their families andthe upgrade efforts were led by the New River Water Company, the London BridgeWaterworks, and others.

Boroughby borough, this transformation occurred, with some of the last areas likeKensington and Chelsea added to the system during the nineteenth century.However, in parallel with the push for convenient drinking water, majorproblems had developed with the sewage system.

Londonis well-known for having water sewage issues a mere century earlier in the1600s, with the black plague being traced to the water system and killed anestimated 100,000 people. So, it was incredibly important to determine thecurrent causes of foul-smelling sewage water that gave such a bad reputation tothe city and the River Thames around which it is built.

Joseph Bazalgette, a civil engineer and expert with water systems, was engagedto take on the huge task of planning and building a new sewer system for thecity of London. Constructed during the mid-1800s, the new sewer system pulledused water from London’s homes and buildings and fed them out through majorwaterways.

This building project was truly on a mammothscale and almost equal to a “world wonder.” To understand the scope of thisbuilding effort, here are some statistics:

• Six interceptor sewers needed building,covering 100 miles
• These were fed by 450 miles of main sewers
• These were fed by 13,000 miles of local streetsewers
• 318 million bricks were used in the buildingprocess
• 670,000 cubic meters of concrete was used tobuild
• 2.7 million cubic meters of land were excavated

Theentire sewer system was designed and built in such and practical manner, thatit left hundreds of miles underground for the eventual construction of London’sfamous and highly efficient Underground train system, similar to New York’ssubways but cleaner.

Kat
Hi, I'm Kat, an Australian that moved to London in 2013 to start anew adventure.What a roller-coasterthat was! I love helping others move to the UKand peopleexplore the world! I’d be honoured if you’d say, “Thanks!” with a £3 coffee on Ko-fi.