Copenhagen Waterworks was one of the first buildings to be built outside Copenhagen's old city walls. The arrangement of the individual buildings, which appears random today, resulted from construction on a former ravelin. A commission was set up in 1847 to investigate possible improvements of Copenhagen's water supply but it took the 1853 Copenhagen cholera outbreak to make the politicians take action. The British company Cochrane &amp; Co was charged with the design and construction and overall design of the system while the architect Niels Sigfred Nebelong designed the individual buildings. Cochrane &amp; Co. had previously also constructed of the city's first gasworks. Carlsberg-founder J. C. Jacobsen set the foundation stone on 16 May 1857 and waterworks was inaugurated on 9 August 1859.