As I said, it sometimes takes a little work to find them in search. I don't think that they are consistently categorized by county. Essex turns up nothing, for example, but if I put in a specific town, it usually turns some up.
'drinking water Essex' gets no results, but 'drinking water East England' turns up results in Essex.
Also, anyone can add stuff to OpenStreetMap. So if you know of public drinking water in your area, you can add it.
Use searchosm.com or overpass-turbo or other point-of-interest (POI) searches. If you need it, the search term is usually something like amenity=drinking_water
The Netherlands seems to be gaining water fountains again. Some railway stations now have one similar to those found at some UK stations, intended for bottle-filling, like a square frame on top of a tall bollard: put your bottle in the square and push a button for a half-fill.
In England, outdoorsy cafés sometimes have a tap for refilling their dog drinking bowls which is unrestricted access even when the cafe is closed.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
Scottish Water have started putting free dispensers out in various locations for filling water bottles. This is pretty new so I have no specific locations. I believe there is one in Oban but not seen it yet. Must check on my next visit later this week. They are apparently going in popular tourist areas first I think.
A question prompted by a point on the devon Cornwall thread.
Am aware of cemetaries.
On the Dunwich Dynamo a couple of years ago I did run very low. Kept a lookout and luckily spotted a tap outside someone's driveway garage. So used it. Middle of the night of course so I didn't think it a good idea to ring the doorbell to ask, though of course if the water was metered I was technically stealing.
On another long ride, also parched, I wandered around a small industrial estate until I found a tap.
Took a risk but no ill effects.
Another point - anything from a tap is going to be mains water isn't it and so by definition drinkable?
On tour I use large bottles but still quite often run low.
So, any hot tips for snaffling tap water?
well is it drinkable? depends on the pipes it goes thru? Old enough the pipes maybe be lead? or maybe contaminated with various bugs if the water doesnt flow very often? like in cemetries?
You could try the OpenCyleMap version of opentreetmap. Without searching I found one indicated in regents park, near the hub
openstreetmap shows the same one but wih a different graphic
Here's a search like you might do for drinking water if you've just got off the ferry from NL (you might have to click "Run" to show results): https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/KX0
Want to search somewhere else? Reposition the map and click "Run" again to rerun the search.
Phone apps OsmAnd~ and AAT both have ways to search OSM for points of interest, too.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk All the above is CC-By-SA and no other implied copyright license to Cycle magazine.
mercalia wrote:I think the trouble is that water in cemetaries may not be fit for drinking? or questionably so?
Where might this water be obtained? A special non-potable supply? It would surely be simply to use the local mains. I guess it might come off the church roof. In my childhood our water supply came off the house roof.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
mercalia wrote:I think the trouble is that water in cemetaries may not be fit for drinking? or questionably so?
Where might this water be obtained? A special non-potable supply? It would surely be simply to use the local mains. I guess it might come off the church roof. In my childhood our water supply came off the house roof.
its not the source but the piping. we have a tap at the back of our flats for cleaning cars presumably, tastes a bit rough, not like out of my cold tap
mercalia wrote: its not the source but the piping. we have a tap at the back of our flats for cleaning cars presumably, tastes a bit rough.
Are house supply pipes ever cleaned? I've never heard of it. Some houses are quite old. This rough tasting water, did it give you the runs? I wouldn't worry, in fact I don't.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
mercalia wrote: its not the source but the piping. we have a tap at the back of our flats for cleaning cars presumably, tastes a bit rough.
Are house supply pipes ever cleaned? I've never heard of it. Some houses are quite old. This rough tasting water, did it give you the runs? I wouldn't worry, in fact I don't.
I think it maybe a matter of the water being stagnant, allow for bugs to develop?
Have to admit I'll pick up a couple of litres @ £0.17 while passing Tescos, Lidls et al. Never had an issue in filling from a West Highland stream, though that's purely been near the top when walking.
If desperate, most people will offer a fill FOC when asked (NB. Not that I make a point of begging!)
mercalia wrote:I think the trouble is that water in cemetaries may not be fit for drinking? or questionably so?
I see the "new" one at KingsCross station in London isnt marked on openstree/cycle maps
Out of interest, where is the kings cross one? I pass that way a fair bit. On lead pipes you mentioned above, doesn't bother me. Surely lead pipes are only a problem if you are taking water from them regularly, not a single drink?
Unfortunately I spent a couple of years reading water companies' charging schemes and the water industry act. As a result this is my understand.
There is only one* water supply in the UK, there isn't an untreated or dirty water supply. Almost all cold taps have water that you can drink. I would advise letting the tap run for a bit if you think it hasn't been used for a while.
Hot taps may supply water that has been held for long periods in a holding tank such as an immersion heater. The water company owns the mains the customer owns the pipe between the mains and the property, the supply pipe and the pipes within the property. Very few water company pipes are made of lead. Some older properties may have lead supply or internal pipes. Unless you drink this water for years there shouldn't be any health concerns. The main contaminate is calcium carbonate and this is harmless.
The UK doesn't have many drinking type fountains with the same design found in many French villages. Many of these are not connected to the 'water supply' i.e. piped water that would come out of a tap in a home. They rely on streams and as such if they pass through farmland this may contain contaminates from animal faeces or agro-chemicals.
*There alternatives are; A few properties have there own ground source (well) supplies with an electric pump to get the water out and to pressure. If you apply to drill a bore hole for a new one it needs to be tested. However, once it's in place I don't know of further testing to a domestic suppply. I lived at a property with such a supply for over 9 years and it was never tested. These are few and far between. Any holding tank, some people collect rain and 'grey' water that they use for watering plants or flushing toilets. These are very unlikely to have an outside tap that you can access.
gbnz wrote:Have to admit I'll pick up a couple of litres @ £0.17 while passing Tescos, Lidls et al. Never had an issue in filling from a West Highland stream, though that's purely been near the top when walking.
If desperate, most people will offer a fill FOC when asked (NB. Not that I make a point of begging!)
I asked for water at a house on the morn of a night ride recently. Not an area covered by shops so didn't seem like begging. Had been sat on a bench opposite the house making a coffee when I saw someone in the garden. So an entirely natural approach.
Sweep wrote:On lead pipes you mentioned above, doesn't bother me. Surely lead pipes are only a problem if you are taking water from them regularly, not a single drink?
We had water supplied through lead pipes when I was a child in a Victorian terrace in Plymouth. It wasn't until the 1960's that they were replaced with copper so had been drinking lead for my first 10 formative years. Could explain why some of my posts seem odd!
Somerset county council have been labelling some taps as not suitable for drinking. Noticed them on public loos at Wheddon cross and county gate on Exmoor, taps I had previously used to fill waterbottles.
Last edited by rjb on 22 Jul 2019, 3:54pm, edited 1 time in total.
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