Place    From 1300 

White Conduit

Categories: Food & Drink

Originally part of the water supply to the Greyfriars Monastery, Newgate Street. See British History 1 and British History 2 for details. The same water was also used to supply Charterhouse from the 1400s to 1652 when Charterhouse decided to use the New River water instead.

The source of the water was a spring in Barnsbury, named for the white stone housing built in 1641. From the 1730s the site became a leisure resort with a tea-house and gardens, centred on the White Conduit House. This was rebuilt but finally demolished in 1849.

The image shows the water supply house in front of a distinctive round building which was part of the leisure complex and can be seen in a number of views from that time. The location of White Conduit House was the north-east corner of Barnsbury Road and Tolpuddle Street with the gardens stretching eastwards to what is now Cloudsley Road, though earlier they had reached all the way to what is now Liverpool Road. The Victorian pub building there now, Little Georgia (which keeps changing it's name so it's barely worth naming it), has "White Conduit House" in large lettering at the cornice.

The fields opposite the White Conduit House, to the west, were used for cricket from the 1770's. A club that formed here moved to Lord's cricket ground and went on to become the Marylebone Cricket Club.

An information board in Barnard Park gives: "Open fields covered the site of Barnard Park until the early 1800s. Just to the south lay White Conduit House, a thriving place of resort and entertainment with a pleasure garden and a sports field that extended over part of the present park. Here cricket and other sports were played - even hot air balloons were flown ..."

We are aware that most of this information has nothing to do with the Rugby Street area but it's interesting and there's no memorial at the site of the White Conduit House to which we could attach it.

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

Commemorated ati

French's Dairy conduit

The nice lady in the shop told us that it is a 2 metre square white marble we...

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Other Subjects

The Black Cap

The Black Cap

Public House. It was originally called the Mother Black Cap after a local legend concerning a witch, and had that name, according to licensing records, as early as 1751. In the mid 1960s it became ...

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1 memorial
Apollo Inn

Apollo Inn

Was on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Torrington Place. Designed by Fitzroy Doll.

Building, Commerce, Food & Drink

1 memorial
Bakers Chop House

Bakers Chop House

A tavern/restaurant at 1 Change Alley. 2019: We were kindly contacted by Raymond Cross who told us that his great great uncle, William Mann Cross ( ? - 1919) was the owner and proprietor of this r...

Building, Commerce, Food & Drink

1 memorial
Boars Head pub

Boars Head pub

2018: Martyn Cornell debunked the text on the pub's plaque and provided the following, more trustworthy information: The pub owner’s name was J. G. Mooney & Co Ltd. based in Dublin, and founde...

Building, Commerce, Food & Drink

1 memorial
Highbury Barn

Highbury Barn

Long a rural pleasure resort for Londoners it became notorious in 1861, when Edward Giovanelli demolished the old buildings and built a lavish pleasure ground which attracted large crowds, includin...

Place, Commerce, Food & Drink, Theatre

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Mo Farah gold post box - Teddington

Mo Farah gold post box - Teddington

TW11, Broad Street

This is Mo's post box for the 5,000m; he has another one for the 10,000m at 477 London Road, TW7 (still to collect).

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
The Gatehouse

The Gatehouse

N6, North Road, 1

The original Gate House was erected here (circa 1386) at the entrance to the Bishop of London's Park.

1 subject commemorated
Colin John Maher

Colin John Maher

W2, Westbourne Park Road

Lovely, heartfelt plaque.

1 subject commemorated
R. P. Campion

R. P. Campion

A North London Railwayman who fell in the Great War.

Person

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
J. F. Addison Greene

J. F. Addison Greene

Hon. Secretary of Hornsey Council in 1911.

Person, Politics & Administration

1 memorial