Is tap water safe to drink in London?

Unless you’ve been told specifically by your local water authority not to drink tap water or have been issued with a boil notice before drinking tap water then YES, tap water in London is safe to drink.  

This very simple ‘yes, tap water is safe to drink in London’ answer is not reflective of the misinformation that is spreading like wildfire across popular social media platforms. Some water filtration companies are using aggressive marketing tactics to convince you that tap water in the UK is unsafe to drink and they’ve got a ‘wonder product’ (a.k.a ‘bog standard water filter that they sell at an inflated price’) that will make it drinkable and a ‘white paper’ (a.k.a marketing sales copy) to back up the hard sell. They then use celebrities to endorse their products in the hope that it will help them sell more. 

Fountain Filters has seen companies like this come and go and we’re left to pick up the pieces of looking after their unhappy and let down customers. The spread of misinformation about tap water in the UK being unsafe is not only harmful to the industry, but also fundamentally untrue. 

However, it is fair to say that even though tap water in London is safe to drink (and across the rest of the UK) there may be specific things about it that you want to change or improve. This can be something as simple as disliking the taste or smell of London tap water to wanting to eradicate limescale.  

There’s also the increased public awareness about PFAS (forever chemicals), microplastics and lead. This is something we’ve noticed a huge increase in queries about during 2024 and envisage these remaining hot topics going forward.

Where does tap water in London come from?

2.6 billion litres of water is used in London every day.

Rivers Thames and Lee provide most of London’s tap water via five large water treatment works. 

Any additional water that is required comes from underground aquifers and a desalination plant at Beckton that was built in 2010 to supply drinking water during peaks of high demand.

Unfortunately, the desalination plant has only successfully operated 3 times between 2010 and 2023, which considering how much it cost to build is disappointing.

London, Swindon and Oxford are categorised as ‘water stressed’. The London areas have less rainfall than Dallas, Rome and Sydney. This is serious because water shortages, climate change and an increasing population are all factors in what could become a distressing situation in the future. Continued investment in infrastructure, fixing leaks, and education around how we could use water more wisely are key.

Multiple treatment processes ensure that your water is safe to drink in London and meets the UK water quality standards. To ensure tap water is safe to drink in London, thousands of tests are carried out from samples from water pipes, water mains and household taps. 

Why does London tap water taste different?

Tap water tastes different in London because the source water is different.

Although it’s safe to drink tap water in London that doesn’t mean you have to like it. And that’s OK because you can filter it. 

Tap water varies across the UK. The landscapes are different, the source water is different, the levels of minerals are different, some water authorities add fluoride, some don’t, the levels of chlorine will vary. The list goes on. 

When people move geographical areas one of the very first things they notice is that the water tastes different, and they’re not used to it. We get so many calls from people who want the water to taste the same as the area they’ve just moved from. That of course is impossible. 

If we concentrate specifically on London tap water, there are a few reasons why it is different to other parts of the UK. 

The London tap water issues that come up regularly are:

• Problems with limescale due to hard water
• Unpleasant taste/smell
• Fluoride (spoiler alert - Fluoride is not added to London tap water)
• Forever chemicals
• Microplastics
• Lead (only a concern if you have lead pipes)

Problems with limescale in London tap water 

If you use our postcode checker you can check how hard your water is in London.

London has hard water and the visible effects of limescale are there for all to see. From the buildup of scale in your kettle, limescale deposits on taps and shower screens, right up to coffee machines and other household appliances breaking down more quickly than they should. 

Then there’s the continuing need to use more soap, shampoo, shower gel and detergents just to get the lather you desire. 

Drinking hard tap water in London is safe. The minerals calcium and magnesium are important to have in our diets. 

It’s just the limescale that people want to remove or reduce. 

Unpleasant taste/smell in London tap water

If you’re on mains water in London, then you’ll have chlorine in your water. 

You know that smell when you enter a swimming pool. That’s the aroma of chlorine, and people don’t like it. It’s got a bleach or TCP kind of smell.

But the addition of chlorine to tap water in London and across the UK is vital to ensure that the hundreds of thousands of kilometres of water pipes remain free from harmful bacteria that would make you ill.

It is safe to drink tap water in London that contains chlorine, but if you don’t want it in your tap water it’s incredibly easy to remove. More on how to do that later.

Fluoride in London tap water

The addition of fluoride in drinking water confuses a lot of people. 

We receive numerous calls from people who are concerned about fluoride in their tap water, and they wish to remove it. 

It would be so easy, but so wrong of us to sell people a water filter system to remove fluoride when it’s not even added to their tap water. 

Currently, England is the only country in the UK that adds fluoride to drinking water. 

And only 10% of England’s population has fluoride added.

This does NOT include LONDON.

Remember what we said in our introductory paragraph above that there are some aggressive marketing campaigns going on across social media about the state of UK tap water. 

The public are commenting on these posts asking whether their ‘wonder product’ removes fluoride. The company is responding by saying ‘click here to be added to our waiting list’ as they’re releasing a product soon that will remove fluoride. What they are not doing is asking what part of the UK that person is living in and then allaying that person’s fears if they live in an area where the local authority doesn’t currently add fluoride to tap water. It’s blatant scaremongering and Fountain Filters are 100% against this. 

So currently, from a fluoride perspective it is safe to drink London tap water. 

PFAS (forever chemicals) in London tap water

Aside from the UK having one of the best public water supplies in the world, PFAS or forever chemicals as they’re more commonly referred to blights that good record. 

The term ‘forever chemicals’ gives us a clue about why people are concerned about them. They do not break down over time and so are always in the tap water. 

Thousands of everyday chemicals are grouped under the PFAS umbrella, such as non-stick coatings on pans, batteries, food packaging, stain resistant fabrics. It is an endless list. 

PFAS may be useful in their working life, but not in their afterlife and we really should be removing them from our London tap water. It’s for this reason that Fountain Filters believe that it is NOT safe to drink tap water in London because of the risk of trace amounts of forever chemicals being present.  

However, we don’t want to scare you. Our role is to give you comfort in the knowledge that you can effectively remove PFAS in London tap water. We’ll cover just how easy this is to do a little later. 

Microplastics in London tap water

Microplastics in UK drinking water is another hot topic that continues to bubble along in the press and across social media platforms.

As the name suggests microplastics are small pieces of plastic that are not discernible by the human eye.

Where there is plastic waste there are microplastics. We all have a responsibility for the level of microplastics found in UK tap water. If you continually buy and then dispose of single use plastic bottles and containers you are adding to the microplastics problem.

Once erosion of the plastic takes place microplastics can end up anywhere. In the food we eat and the water we drink. 

Fountain Filters feel it’s safe to say that microplastics in UK tap water will be in minute quantities because the public water supply filters a lot of it out before it reaches your tap.

However, there will be microplastics in tap water and for that reason London tap water is not safe to drink if you want to avoid ingesting plastic. 

But tap water is safer than plastic bottles of water. If you think that you’re avoiding microplastics because the only water you drink is bottled water bought off the supermarket shelf then sadly you are mistaken. 

Lead in London tap water

Realistically, you only need to be concerned about lead in your tap water if you have discovered that there are lead pipes in your house. 

If you have lead in your tap water in London it is toxic and we highly recommended that you filter it out. We obviously don’t know how much lead is in your water, you would need to get your water tested to determine the amount. 

It’s a lot cheaper to install a drinking water filter to remove lead than it is to get the pipes replaced. 

Please note that boiling water that contains lead will not remove it. It will do the opposite. It will increase the concentration of lead in your drinking water.

Tap water is NOT safe to drink in London if it contains lead. 

Is bottled water safer than tap water in the UK?

No, Fountain Filters does not think that bottled water is safer than tap water in the UK.

Please do not go down the fashionable rabbit hole of believing that bottled water is safer to drink than tap water. 

There are a few reasons why bottled water is not better to drink than tap water. 

• Bottled water can contain a few hundred microplastics per litre versus tap water with between zero and 10 microplastics per litre. 93% of bottled water has some signs of microplastic contamination according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO published an article on the 30th August 2022 on the Dietary and inhalation exposure to nano and microplastic particles and potential implications for human health which covers human exposure to the occurrence of microplastics in drinking water.
• Water bought in single use plastic bottles works against what the UK are trying to achieve in terms of reducing plastic waste. Did you know that up to 1 billion single-use plastic bottles are used in London each year. 
• The bottled water industry is far less regulated than the public water supply in the UK. However, we have come across The Natural Mineral, Spring Water and Bottled Drinking Water (England) Regulations 2007 which goes into detail on the requirements for prescribed concentrations of micro-organisms, elements and substances contained in the water prior to bottling. 
• Bottled water is more expensive than tap water. 2 litres of water from a tap will cost you less than 1/3p. A 2L supermarket own brand is around 45p and a premium branded 2L bottle would set you back 90p or more.

Where can you access tap water in public places?

Under the Refill London scheme you can fill up you re-useable water bottle with free drinking water at one of 5,000 refill stations across London. You can download the Refill App to find out where your nearest London water refill station is. The app doesn't have brilliant reviews, but as with all things like this, it's work in progress.

One of the main reasons for installing drinking water stations across London is to drive down the use of single-use plastic bottles. 

A study in 2022 (see the Refill London website link above) found that 90% of people living in London owned a reuseable bottle, so the more refill stations there are the better. Not having access to this free drinking water stops people using their reuseable bottle and forces people into thinking they need to buy bottled water.  

All premises licensed to sell alcohol in the UK have to provide free drinking water when requested. This applies even if you’re not a paying customer. 

Non-licensed premises are encouraged to provide free drinking water but can charge if they wish to do so.  

If you want to outsmart everyone around you, invest in a Water to Go drinking water filter bottle and you can guarantee fresh filtered water from any London tap. 

How to improve the taste and quality of London tap water 

We’ve highlighted some common concerns about London tap water that people call us daily about. 

To reiterate, these are problems with limescale due to hard water, unpleasant taste and smell of London tap water, fluoride, PFAS (forever chemicals), and the presence of microplastics in London water. 

For the purposes of this article, we’re going to ignore fluoride as this is not currently added to London tap water. 

To help you improve the taste and quality of your London tap water and give you peace of mind that London tap water is safe to drink then Fountain Filters recommend looking at the following product categories / products on our website.  

Water filters to resolve problems with limescale in London tap water

Fountain Filters have a lot of experience helping people in London combat limescale problems associated with hard water areas. 

We have hard water filter systems that reduce limescale in your drinking water and also throughout your entire London home. 

Water filters to improve the taste and smell of your London tap water

Tap water in London is treated with chlorine which is a disinfectant used by the water industry to kill harmful bacteria. This ensures your household drinking water won’t make you ill. 

Some people don’t like the taste or smell of chlorinated water and would prefer to remove it from their tap water. 

The removal of chlorine from tap water is incredibly easy with any water filter system that contains a carbon block water filter cartridge. 

Our most basic drinking water filter to remove chlorine is our best-selling Pearl T. To remove chlorine from every tap in your house take a look at our Doby whole house water filter. 

The water filter cartridges used in both water filter systems will ensure your London tap water is free from chlorine and safe to drink for a minimum of 12 months. You only need to change the cartridge every year which is good news for London homeowners. 

Water filters to reduce PFAS (forever chemicals) in London tap water

Despite all the noise out there on social media there is no need to complicate the removal of PFAS from your London tap water. 

ANY water filter containing a carbon block water filter cartridge is going to reduce the level of PFAS in your tap water, making it safe to drink for you and your family.

You don’t need anything fancy so please don’t be swayed by anything else you might find.

Please follow the same links for products that you see above for improving the taste and smell of your London tap water. 

Water filters to reduce microplastics in London tap water

To remove microplastics from tap water in London you need to be looking for a system that uses a carbon block water filter cartridge with a micron rating of 1 or below.

5 micron will reduce microplastics, but we recommend a smaller micron rating to be on the safe side. 

For your drinking water only, this would be our Pearl T with what we call a chlorine guzzler cartridge.  

A combined water filter system such as our Oyster TC would also do the job. This system uses two water filter cartridges: a 5 micron carbon block and 0.5 micron carbon block. 

To treat your whole house for microplastics you need the exact same Doby whole house water filter from the ‘how to improve the taste and smell of your London tap water’ section above, but with a 0.5 micron carbon block instead of the 5 micron cartridge that comes as standard with that filter system.

How Fountain Filters can help you with your London tap water

We don’t want you to buy bottled water thinking it’s going to be safer than filtering your own London tap water. We don’t want you to be mislead by the nonsense information out there on the internet. 

The cost of installing a house water filtration system will always be cheaper than buying bottled water, adding to the huge environmental problem London has with single use plastic bottles.

But we understand that if you’re just starting out with filtering your own London tap water to make is safe to drink that it can feel a little overwhelming deciding on what is right for you. 

That’s where our expert knowledge comes in. We’ll guide you to finding the best solution for your individual needs, no matter what those needs are. 

It’s easy to get in touch. Either call 01352 838 281 or leave a message on our helpdesk. 

FAQs about London tap water: 

Is it safe to drink tap water in London? 

In essence, YES but that doesn’t mean you have to like it and there are filters you can use to make it safer, such as removing PFAS and microplastics. 

Is London tap water recycled sewage? 

No, the water coming out of your tap is not recycled sewage. Your drinking water comes from rivers and aquifers where it’s treated to make it safe for human consumption. It’s only after you’ve used it and it’s literally gone down the drain into the sewage system that it’s transported back to the treatment works and then safely recycled back into the environment (not into the drinking water supply!). 

Do we end up drinking toilet water?

No, you’re not drinking toilet water in London. Your drinking water comes from rivers and aquifers, and it’s treated to make it potable. Once you’ve used the tap water it goes down the drain via the sewage system where it’s treated and recycled back into the environment.