King George V Reservoir

in background]] The reservoir was conceived as part of an overall plan for the Lea Valley and was laid before the Royal Commission on Water Supply (Balfour Committee) in 1893. At this time the responsible authority was the East London Waterworks Company. However, under the provisions of the Metropolis Water Act 1902, the undertakings of this as well as seven other companies were transferred to the Metropolitan Water Board. Construction was started in 1908 and completed in 1912. The reservoir was opened by H.M.King George V in 1913, hence the name. The Metropolitan Water Board operated the reservoir until the Board was abolished in 1974 under the provisions of the Water Act 1973 (c. 37) and…

The reservoir was formed by the construction of a continuous embankment on the floodplain of the River Lea at Chingford. An earth embankment divides the reservoir into two compartments that are connected by three large diameter culverts. The external grassed embankment consists of a central puddle clay core with shoulder filling comprising a mixture of river terraced gravels and alluvial deposits. The reservoir embankment has a puddle clay core extending down into the underlying London Clay and gravel/earth shoulders at a slope of 1 in 3. The top of the embankment is 10 m above the surrounding land. The key engineering parameters are: {| class="wikitable" |+King George V Reservoir…