Over the next few days, parched Londoners will be able to make use of the city’s abundant free water refill points. All across the capital, there are at least 4,000 completely free drinking spots, located everywhere from stations, to parks, museums and hospitals.
We share all the key spots and the full map so that Londoners can safely enjoy the heat, while grabbing a free drink to refresh and rehydrate on the go. As well as telling you all the free water spots, the five-tier map highlights all the ‘cool spots’ in London and even those with tree canopy cover.
The free water map is great news for Londoners who are under a yellow heat alert and set to experience the hottest weekend of the year – the BBC predicts Saturday will be the hottest day of the year at 33C.
NHS hot weather advice warns that one of the main risks posed by a heatwave include not drinking enough water (dehydration). During heatwaves, more people than usual get seriously ill and die, and some are more vulnerable than others.
Free water stations map
The 4,000 water refill spots are spread out across the city. North London drinking water fountains are as far out as Enfield Town and Edmonton Green stations. Other North London spots include Seven Sisters and Islington Green. Over in East London, there’s Abbey Wood Station as well as Millwall Park.
Then in the South, you have, East Croydon Station as well as West Norwood Library. In West London, there’s The Natural History Museum, South Ealing and Shepherd’s Bush Station. And finally, in Central London, there are several spots including Liverpool Street Station, Bloomsbury Square and Guy’s Hospital.
Dehydration means your body loses more fluids than you take in and if it isn’t treated it can get worse and become a serious problem. It can happen more easily if you have been in the sun for too long. Symptoms include feeling thirsty, feeling dizzy or lighthearted and a dry mouth, lips and tongue. The NHS recommends that to reduce the risk of becoming dehydrated, you should drink fluids regularly and drink enough during the day so your pee is a pale clear colour.
Yesterday (June 19), the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, urged Londoners to familiarise themselves with the spaces where they can take a break from the hot weather and grab a free drink. He shared the Cool Spaces Map pointing out to his followers on X, ”there are 4000 free water refill points and more than 100 fountains across our city”.
But with 4000 free water refill points and more than 100 water fountains across the city, free water all year round means there’s good news for Londoners beyond June 16 and across all of the sweltering summer months. Here are all the locations for where you can grab a free swig of pure H2O.
Why are there so many free water fountains across the city?
800 fountains existed in London over 100 years ago. Back in 2018, when Sadiq Khan had set out on his mission to “lead the way for Londoners in topping up on tap water when we’re on the move”, he explained that “for many years, our public water fountains were discarded.”
A plan for 20 fountains had initially been unveiled, but as the initial plans were so successful, by 2022, Sadiq Khan and Thames Water’s £2.5m partnership had seen at least 100 fountains being built across the capital.
As well as encouraging Londoners to embrace a refill culture, for Sadiq, a huge reason for the drive has been the environment and wanting to tackle the issue of single-use plastic. In light of soaring use of single-use plastic, the mayor had declared “we’re determined to reverse that trend and help deliver hundreds more free public fountains in the capital for everyone to enjoy.”
Reusable water bottle brand Ohelo say that every year, Londoners use around 175 single use plastic bottles and as a nation we go through 7.7 billion. Plastic bottles and their tops even make up for 10% of all items in the Thames and a third of the fish in the English channel have plastics present.
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