Emma M. Jones - Parched City

Researching this book was possible because of the public learning resources in London that I had free access to and the skilled professionals who assisted me at those institutions. Above all, my thanks go to the staff at the City of Londons London Metropolitan Archives where I must pay particular credit to Jane Muncaster, Jeremy Smith and Claire Titley for their sage advice, generously given on many occasions and their patience with numerous queries.

Sincere thanks are also due to The Authors Foundation and its 2011 panel of assessors who granted me an award to buy some invaluable writing time. Their professional endorsement was a great vote of confidence that boosted me in the middle of this project.

Thanks also to Capital Radio for permission to quote from an interview with the former Metropolitan Water Board engineers Arthur Durling and George Graham.

For the contemporary chapters, my interviewees were extremely generous with their time and professional knowledge. Warm thanks is given, therefore, to Maria Andrews (formerly of Waste Watch), Megan Ashfield (Populous Architects), Ralph Baber and John E. Mills (The Drinking Fountain Association), Victor Callister (City of London Corporation), Professor Jeni Colbourne (Drinking Water Inspectorate), Kath Dalmeny, Christine Haigh and Jackie Schneider (Sustain), Michael Green (tapwater.org), Jenny Hall (formerly of the Museum of London), Guy Jeremiah (Aquatina/Find-A-Fountain), Jarno Stet (Westminster City Council), and Steve White (Thames Water). I am also appreciative of Cory Environmental Services for allowing me to visit its Materials Recovery Facility in Wandsworth and to the Veolia employees in Westminster who sifted the bins from Piccadilly Circus on my behalf.

Respondents to my call for drinking fountain memories were also very generous in their contributions, so many thanks to them and to the local history societies and colleagues in other organisations who took the time to disseminate my request.

I also want to thank Jakob Horstmann at Zed Books for his advice about publishing and Tariq Goddard of Zer0 Books for such an enthusiastic response to my initial proposal.

Friends have been more than generous with their queries about my progress, even when it was painfully slow, and offered much moral support and plenty of welcome distractions. In particular, my thanks go to Sue Baker, Katie Bradbury, Ally Branley, Kevin Brown, David Cross, Kirsty Cunningham, Rose Dawson, Katherine Davey, Alexandra and James Goddard, Julia Griffin, Helen Griffith, Ashley Kelly, Launa Kennet, James Kidd, Torsten Lange, Emma Reynolds, Dinah Roe, Mark Smith, Jason Vir, Julie Watson and Adam Wilkinson.

Elish and Gerald Chapman (my much-loved in laws) have both been great sources of support. Thanks also to Dr Bruce Stewart, my learned stepfather, and my brother, Nick Stewart who have given me plenty of votes of confidence.

A very warm thanks is reserved for Declan Jones, my father, for his positive feedback on my initial chapter and his firm belief that I could complete the project. His comment that my writing is muscular still baffles me, but I accept it. Sigrid Castle, his partner, also offered generous encouragement.

Above all, there are three women without whose support I simply could not have written this book.

Dr Barbara Penner offered continuous encouragement and intellectual inspiration throughout my project. As an editor, her input was invaluable. I still have no idea how she squeezed in reading drafts of chapters and my manuscript whilst writing her own book (actually, two books!), lecturing and mothering, but I am indebted to her for giving me this time. Look out for her forthcoming book, an architectural history of the modern Bathroom (Reaktion).

Sheila Geraghty, my mother, financially supported my first period of my research, which laid the foundation for the rest of the book to be built upon. For that material help, I am extremely fortunate and very grateful indeed. Her moral support throughout the project was unfaltering.

Grace Chapman, my partner, has been my emotional anchor. She has patiently listened to my various rants about drinking water over the last two and a half years, and occasionally now gets on the anti-bottled-water soapbox herself. Graces comments on the content of early chapters were both sharply critical and encouraging but, most of all, I thank her for putting up with me during grumpy spells and a long period of meagre income on my part. My resourceful cooking skills possibly have something to do with her tolerance.