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QUICK, family of engineers (fl. 1800–1910) were associated with the Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company for a century, with later generations developing an international consultancy practice around municipal engineering. Joseph QUICK (1) (fl. 1790–1844) was resident engineer for the Southwark Waterworks Company. This was an 1822 merger of the Borough and London Bridge waterworks and was one of a number of London water companies that drew its supply from the River Thames, in its case at Bankside. It had to deal with the demands of a rapidly expanding population at a time when its principal source was becoming ever more tainted by sewage and industrial effluent.