2-888-477 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Water-Carrier at Hampstead, [London], 1850. 'The soft water used for domestic purposes is supplied chiefly from two springs at the opposite and extreme ends of the town, the one being at North End, and the other...is at a place called "The Conduit", in the fields on the south side of Hampstead. At this place...a number of men may be seen occupied at all hours of the day...filling their pails, which they carry with the aid of yokes, and sell to the inhabitants at the rate of three-halfpence or twopence a "turn", according to the distance, the "turn" being two pails. At times, in the hot weather, this spring...becomes so nearly exhausted that the carriers are obliged to wait for the water rising, and fill their pails by means of common earthenware basins, which the carriers call "dippers". From "Illustrated London News", 1850.