If you were wondering what symbol would be added to the tube map next, how about a refillable water bottle?
It's always obvious retrospectively.
To be fair this isn't the actual tube map, it's only the Overground network, hence the map is titled "London Overground stations with free drinking water fountains". The new symbol thus means "station with free drinking water fountain", and you'll either be impressed by how many there are or disappointed how few.
The Mayor wants you to have somewhere to refill a water bottle because he's trying to reduce London's use of single-use plastic, and TfL want you to be able to hydrate more easily because people who faint on trains tend to disrupt the service. Apparently the average Londoner buys more than three plastic water bottles every week, or 175 a year, which disturbingly is the precisely the same statistic peddled six years ago when the Mayor's first tranche of drinking fountains was announced.
It seems odd launching a water bottle map at the end of summer rather than at the start, and also odd launching it a month before all six Overground lines get different colours, but ours is not to reason why.
Also if I shift across the map it looks nowhere near as impressive. It turns out the Liberty line will have zero free drinking water fountains, the Lioness line only one (at Euston) and the Suffragette line only two. Mildmay, Weaver and Windrush do rather better, but thus far there are only 28 refill-enabled Overground stations so best fill up before you go.
Reading a press release is all very well but I wanted to experience these free water fountains for real, so I grabbed my refillable bottle and went to visit seven of them. It may not surprise you to hear that the map wasn't always especially helpful, or indeed seemingly correct.
Homerton
Homerton's a tiny station so this was dead easy to find, plumbed into the wall just beyond the ticket gates beside the Metro bins. This is one of the Overground's six newly installed free water refill points, and very smart it looked too. It's also entirely automatic, you just place your bottle under the spout and the water flows until you take it away again. I thought the dispensed water had a light chill but I may have been imagining it. Also the machine has a tiny LCD display showing the number of Bottles Saved. Yesterday that number was only just over 3000, but I admire the optimism of the manufacturers because the display has eight digits so could comfortably cope with everyone in the UK using it.
Hackney Central
One stop up the line I had more trouble. I scoured the platforms to no effect, also the original ticket hall beside platform 2, also the new ticket gates off platform 1. This took some time. In the end I approached the staff at the assistance window, waved my bottle and asked if the station had a water refill machine. They shook their heads. I didn't say "but there's a new map out today and it says Hackney Central has a free drinking water fountain", but I did think "ha, typical, the map is actually wrong". I cannot fault the staff, however, because they offered to provide me with a free refill anyway. They led me round to the platform where I waited while they topped up my bottle in the mess room, right to the top, and what's more it was properly chilled too. I'd received fantastic customer service but it couldn't disguise the fact that the new map appeared to be incorrect.
Hackney Downs
I had trouble here too. The station has three sets of platforms, a deep connecting subway and a narrow funnel out onto the street. I explored some of these, eventually ending up asking the member of staff at the entrance if he knew where a water refill machine was. Alas he didn't. But I carried on looking anyway and eventually found it in the centre of platform 2 beside the staff office, also with just over 3000 lifetime users. Now I know where the machine is I can use it again and again, but the trouble with the map is that it doesn't state a location, merely sends you off on a treasure hunt around the station until you manage to find it. This, I'd argue from bitter experience, is suboptimal.
Bethnal Green
Is it on the platforms? No it's not. Is it in the subway? No it's not. This time it's in the ticket area, outside the ticket gates, beneath a dinky little blue sign saying Compliments of London Overground. Because it's outside the ticket gates this means anyone on the street can use it, which is good, but also that nobody on a train can nip out and use it without incurring a nasty fare penalty. Inside or outside turns out to be rather important, practically speaking, if you want your bottle filled.
Haggerston/Hoxton
These are also outside the ticket gates, indeed this time they're also outside the station because they have nothing to do with the Overground. They were introduced five years ago in Sadiq's first wave of fountains, part-funded by Thames Water, and have a telltale blue water droplet perched on top. You can't miss them on the pavement, the Hoxton dispenser especially, but you do have to think to go outside and look.
Liverpool Street
My final water refill search was a tricky one because Liverpool Street station is vast and the machine could have been anywhere. It certainly wasn't in the 'Overground' part of the concourse because I looked, and then decided it would be quicker if I just went and asked at the central information kiosk. "It's over there," gestured the member of staff, and ah yes there it was near the entrance to the Underground in the alcove beside the lift used for step-free access. It turned out to be a beast of a machine, a flashy dispenser provided by @sipplehydration which appeared to be offering Double Filtered UV Sterilised Super Chilled water... at a price. It wanted 45p for half a litre chilled, 75p for a litre at room temperature and 10p extra if you wanted sparkling. Fret not, an option for free tap water was provided underneath so I used that, but it was all a bit of a touchscreen palaver and give me Homerton's squirty simplicity any day.
In conclusion, of the seven stations I tried...
Homerton: Inside gateline (in subway) Hackney Central: Could Not Locate Hackney Downs: Middle of Platform 2 Bethnal Green: Outside gateline (by ticket machine) Haggerston/Hoxton: Outside station (on street) Liverpool Street: Beside lift to Underground
An Overground map with bottles on is all very well but what's missing, practically speaking, is a list of precisely where the water refill stations actually are. For example it turns out Hackney Central does have a water refill machine, a slim black thing outside the ticket gates at the new Graham Road entrance, but staff on the other side of the station were entirely unaware of its existence. If they can't locate it, what chance do the rest of us have?
The Overground's new refill points are excellent once you find them but at present the campaign's too much like a poorly charted orienteering challenge, and at a fairly miserly number of stations to boot. Let's hope things have improved, numbers- and directions-wise, by the time next summer comes around.
