Even before work at Hampton was complete, contamination of the water supply of the Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company, providing water to the borough of Southwark, Battersea, and other locations in the vicinity, led to the 1853 cholera outbreak. A further cholera outbreak in Soho in 1854 added to the urgency. Both outbreaks were famously studied by Dr John Snow. The company’s new facilities up-river at Hampton (shared with two other water companies) only came into operation in 1855.