I'll 



WOODEN WATER-PIPES AT CLERKENWELL, 



LONDON. 



By F. W. READER. 

 With Plate XI. 



OWING to the great interest that the Essex Field Club has 

 shown in the matter of wooden water-pipes, the accom- 

 pan3ing illustrations may perhaps be acceptable, as adding to the 

 large amount of information on the subject already collected in 

 the pages of the Essex Naturalist, by Mr. T. V. Holmes and 

 others.-^ 



The original drawings from which these views have been 

 reproduced are in the collection of the Soane Museum, and 

 represent the course of the New River mains in the fields at 

 Clerkenwell about the year 1800. 



As topographical records they are extremely interesting^ 

 though in this particular they may hardly be thought to come 

 within the province of the Essex Field Club. A few remarks 



may be admissible. 



Both the views are taken from about the same spot, which is on the course 

 of the Fleet River , at this time an open stream as far as Holborn Hill. The 

 locality is that traversed by the King's Cross Road, formerly known as the 

 Bagnigge Wells Road. At the present time the district is dull and squalid, 

 ofTering apparently little of interest to the casual visitor. The great changes that 

 have taken place in recent years might well lead one to suppose that all traces of 

 its condition a century ago, when it formed a stretch of open meadows intersected 

 by streams, would long since have been obliterated. However, the valley of the 

 Fleet, though considerably iilled up, is still to be recognised in the rise of the 

 streets on either side of King's Cross Road, and other landmarks remain, so that 

 with the aid of old engravings and maps many of the features of these drawings 

 may still be clearly traced. 



The upper view shows the mains crossing the Fleet in the Spa Fields, and 

 stretching on the left-hand side of the picture to the New River Head by Sadler's 

 "Wells. Here at the present time the New River Head remains, and Sadler's 

 Wells Theatre still exists, though there is little to tell of its former glories and 

 triumphs, while the name by which it is still known "Old Sads " seems 

 singularly appropriate in its now dismal and fallen condition. 



The street of houses seen in the distance is Exmouth Street, then occupied by 



well-to-do people. The domed building seen over the houses to the right is Spa 

 Fields Chapel, once famous as Lady Huntingdon's Chapel. This has in quite 

 recent years disappeared, and the church of the Holy Redeemer has been built on 

 its site. 



The high wall on the right is that of the County Gaol, afterwards 

 known as the House of Correction or Cold Bath Prison. This has now been 



I Essex Naturalist, Vol. xiii:, pp. 60-75 lb- "7 and 118, and pp. 229-240. 



