Drinking Fountain & Troughs 034 - Streatham Common Multi-cache
Drinking Fountain & Troughs 034 - Streatham Common
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(not chosen)
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This cache is placed in continuation of the series created by
Merstham Mafia. To continue the series yourself please
Contact Merstham Mafia
The cache is a nano so please bring your own writing implement.
The cache is not at the posted coordinates, but they will take you
to an information sign post. If you're lucky you can park right
next to it but there is parking all the way along this road - and
you can see the trough from here.
Here's the trough in winter, with some snow birds sitting on
it:
The cache can be found somewhere inside the Streatham Rookery - a
lovely little garden area set aside from the Common at these
coordinates: N51 25.ABC W000 07.DEF
The park closes at different times throughout the year - 9 in the
summer months and around 6 heading into winter so plan your visit
carefully. To answer the questions, look at the sign post (and
ignore halves and quarters etc):
A = Wandsworth Common
B = Beckenham Palace Mansion - 2x Crystal Palace
C = Crystal Palace
D = Tooting Bec Common + Wandsworth Common - Crystal Palace
E = Tooting Bec Common x 3
F = Beckenham Palace Mansion - Wandsworth Common
I strongly recommend having a look around the Rookery when you
visit - take a picnic but no BBQs!
Now for some history:
The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association
was an association set up in London by Samuel Gurney an MP and
philanthropist and Edward Thomas Wakefield, a barrister in 1859 to
provide free drinking water. Originally called the Metropolitan
Free Drinking Fountain Association it changed its name to include
cattle troughs in 1867, to also support animal welfare.
Water provision in the nineteenth century was from nine private
water companies each with a geographic monopoly, which provided
inadequate quantities of water which was often contaminated, as was
famously discovered by John Snow during the 1854 cholera epidemic.
Population growth in London had been very rapid (more than doubling
between 1800 and 1850) without an increase in infrastructure
investment. Legislation in the mid nineteenth century gradually
improved the situation; the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers was
informed, water filtration was made compulsory, and water intakes
on the Thames were forced to be moved above the sewage outlets. In
this environment the public drinking fountain movement began,
initially in Liverpool where the local government was granted the
ability to buy out the private water companies in 1847. It built
the first public baths and then encouraged philanthropic public
drinking water fountains.
Happy caching!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Cnff gur qhgpuvr (juvyfg fvggvat) ba gur...