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The mixer tap, brilliant invention, and yet something that seems to have passed Britain by.

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You'll get Americans coming over here and asking why our taps look like they're from the 1940's.

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And even here, in my parents' bathroom -- I'm visiting my folks this weekend and they

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just had a new bathroom put in -- separate hot and cold taps.

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And there are all sorts of theories about why that might be, generally revolving

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around 'Well we're British,' and 'Stiff upper lip,' and 'You know we don't need mixer taps. We've never had them.'

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And well, that's partly true, but it also goes back to how houses in Britain were constructed after World War II.

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In most old British houses there's a cold water storage tank up in the attic. It's reasonably sized, about 250 liters,

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and that in turn feeds a hot water storage tank that's for the central heating,

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and for hot water in the bathroom, and in the kitchen, and so on.

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But the trouble is that might not be entirely safe drinking water. Because that cold water storage tank,

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in some houses that weren't properly maintained, might have been open to the elements, or silted up, or covered

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with iron rust, or, in one particular case you can read about, have a couple of dead rats floating in it.

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That water might technically not be drinkable. And under the regulations - I looked up the regulations -

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it is not counted as drinking water. The cold, meanwhile, at least certainly in the kitchen, and sometimes the

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bathroom, too, the cold water comes straight from the mains. That counts as drinkable.

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So here's the thing: You have cold, safe, the regulations call it 'wholesome', drinking water, and you have,

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well, almost certainly safe but not technically, not legally under the regulations, hot water.

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And never the twain shall meet. If you have a mixer tap, then technically, the unsafe hot water, in the worst case

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scenario, when there is a backwash valve failure and the mains turns off, that unsafe water could go back,

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backwash through all the systems, and go out to contaminate the rest of the street or the rest of the

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water system. That's not legal, therefor no mixer tap. You don't cross the streams. Nowadays, of course,

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it's a little bit different. This house had its hot water tank ripped out a few months ago. The attic is now just a big

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empty space again. And, well, there is a very modern, shiny bit of technology downstairs that heats up water

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on demand. All new built houses go this way. If they've got mixer taps, it'll be absolutely fine. But...

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I remember being told as a kid 'never drink from the hot water tap.' And that stuck with me. Even now, if there is a mixer tap

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and I want to drink from it, I will run the cold water for a few seconds just to make sure anything that's unsafe

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has come out of it. Even now old habits die hard. And sometimes these things just feel a bit safer.

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