London has made a big splash about installing public drinking fountains (Londoners to get 100 more drinking fountains by 2020, 12 October) but it was Liverpool that pioneered these in the 1850s, installed gradually by the philanthropist and temperance enthusiast Charles Melly at his own expense from 1854.
Melly was inspired to carry out this work by a visit to Geneva, and he acknowledged the benefits of a free supply of drinking water not only to emigrants at the docks but to people from the manufacturing and rural districts, who filled the street as excursionists, especially as an antidote to drunkenness, when beer was the only other refreshment option, or water from horse troughs.
His work was recognised in a public testimonial in 1861, but tragically he suffered from depression and eventually killed himself in 1888. Following his lead, other towns and cities – including Leeds, Hull, Derby, Chester, Leicester, Sunderland, Aberdeen and Glasgow – began similar projects, sometimes funded by councils, sometimes by individual benefactors. This initiative also inspired the foundation of the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association in London in 1859.
Susan Major
York
• Further to Bob Davies’s letter (16 October), the London public toilet I would like to see restored is the one with the goldfish in the glass cisterns. I used it on a school trip in 1946, so I know I am not dreaming!
Harry Holloway
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
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