In 1245, London engineers built a massive underground lead pipe to bring fresh water three miles into the heart of the city—but during royal weddings and coronations, the city authorities would secretly disconnect the water supply and hook the pipes up to massive vats of claret, turning the public fountains into a political bribe that ran with free wine for days (opens in new tab)

In the middle of medieval London, at the junction of Cheapside and Poultry, there stood a fountain. For most of its life, it did something entirely ordinary and entirely vital: it gave the people of London clean water to drink. But every so often — on the day a king was crowned, or a royal […]