The New River was a canal opened in 1613 to supply London’s growing population with fresh water, which was commercially sold by the New River Company. Its construction and use played an instrumental part in the shift from freely available water that had to be fetched to a commercial service that was laid into people’s homes.

Between 1875 and 1925, trout expanded beyond their native haunts to inhabit every corner of the globe. London’s Fisheries Exhibition in 1883 was a catalyst that ignited a transnational fish-culture revolution and turned trout into a cosmopolitan species.

Making more beer for eighteenth-century London’s growing population increased the need for clean water. Efforts to guarantee supplies to the brewers had an effect on both urban and rural landscapes.