Building    From 1236  To 1666

Great Conduit

Categories: Engineering, Food & Drink

In 1236/7 the City of London was granted permission to tap the Tyburn Springs, at about where Stratford Place now is. Work to build the conduit began in 1245. it went via Piccadilly, Charing Cross, the Strand, Fleet Street, Ludgate Circus, north of St Pauls, to Cheapside. At the site of the plaque there was a a deep cistern and fountain.

At Ancestreemakers we learn that the conduit was "a wood and lead water pipe with an internal diameter of 90 mm, which lay, encased in clay, at the bottom of a deep trench". Already being superseded by other sources of fresh water the conduit was damaged in the Great Fire and abandoned.

The image shows the Conduit to the right, and comes via The Guardian from Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Great Conduit

Commemorated ati

Great Conduit in Cheapside - blue

The Great Conduit stood in this street providing free water, 13th century to ...

Read More

Great Conduit in Cheapside - stone

{Below the City of London crest:} The Great Conduit lies beneath this spot. B...

Read More

Other Subjects

Pierre Cérésole

Pierre Cérésole

Engineer and peace activist. Born in Lausanne. He worked in the United States and Japan, returning to Switzerland at the outbreak of WW1. He became a conscientious objector, and was imprisoned beca...

Person, Engineering, Peace, Switzerland

1 memorial
William Edward Farquharson

William Edward Farquharson

Senior Second Engineer on the RMS Titanic. A full résumé of his life can be found on the Encyclopedia Titanica website. He is also commemorated on the Engineers Memorial, Andrews East Park, Above B...

Person, Engineering, Tragedy

1 memorial
George Furness

George Furness

Contractor responsible for the construction of the Northern Outfall Sewer in 1862-3.

Person, Engineering

1 memorial
Finchley Road

Finchley Road

This highway was constructed in 1835 as an alternative by-pass route to the old road from London to the north, which took the gruelling haul up through the congested streets of Hampstead.

Place, Engineering, Transport

1 memorial
John Romer

John Romer

Architect and structural engineer. John Henry Romer was born on 13 March 1947 in Kingston-upon-Thames the eldest of the three children of Sydney Gurney Romer (1903-2005) and Dorothy Joan Agnes Rom...

Person, Architecture, Engineering

1 memorial

Previously viewed

St Mary Bothaw

St Mary Bothaw

'Bothaw' derived from 'boathouse', which makes sense when you remember that before the Embankment was built the Thames used be be a lot closer.  In existence by 1279, it was destroyed in the Great ...

Building, Religion

1 memorial
Battle of Arnhem

Battle of Arnhem

In WW2, during Operation Market Garden, the British 1st Airborne Division and the Poish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade were given the task of securing the bridge at Arnhem. They were parachuted ...

Event, Armed Forces, Netherlands

1 memorial
Greater London Council

Greater London Council

Replaced the LCC. The GLC was abolished, some say, because Mrs Thatcher could not abide its left-wing politics, nor its leader, Ken Livingstone.  On its 50th anniversary Diamond Geezer posted a goo...

Group, Politics & Administration

241 memorials
Prince Albert

Prince Albert

Born Schloss Rosenau, Coburg, Germany, as Albert Francis Augustus Charles Emanuel. Married his first cousin, Victoria, in 1840. President of the Commissioners for the Great Exhibition. Generally in...

Person, Royalty, Seriously Famous, Germany

21 memorials
Robert Seaward

Robert Seaward

We can't find any confirmation but our guess is that Seaward worked at the tube station and through his efforts some sort of club space was provided for his fellow workers in the building. Can anyo...

Person, Transport

1 memorial