Find the remains of the Lambs Conduit

Running through part of Bloomsbury is the moderately upmarket Lambs Conduit Street, and if you look carefully, you can see the remains of the water conduit that gives the area its name.

Lambs Conduit is named after London cloth merchant and wealthy philanthropist William Lambe, although there is some confusion about his involvement with this conduit. It is not in dispute that he was involved in it, and he had a record of supporting charitable works. Now, he either repaired and renamed the existing Holborn Conduit in 1577, or he built a brand new conduit at this location — it’s a tad confusing and different records say different things.

I suspect a misreading of John Stow’s survey of London occurred at some point, so I am going with that version  — which is that he paid £1,500 for a new conduit — a dam on a stream feeding into the River Fleet — to be built and 2,000 yards of lead pipes to be laid to carry water to the nearby housing.

He also likely paid for 120 buckets to be provided to poor women to carry water, which they could then sell to the majority of the people who wouldn’t have had access to the piped water. In effect, he gave them the tools to earn a wage.

Apart from the water conduit, William Lambe was a wealthy philanthropist who provided funds for almshouses and funded charities that would support the poor in several parishes. One of those is the William Lambe Trust which still supports St James Islington church, and in 2016, it was worth £300,000.

The conduit was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in 1667 at the expense of Sir Thomas Daws and reputedly poured wine for the coronation of King George I—that’s not unlikely, as conduits turning water into wine were a tradition on special occasions.

The conduit survived for around 200 years and was finally demolished in 1746, when better supplies of fresh water, such as the New River, rendered it surplus to requirements. Sadly, the grand conduit head structure was demolished, but a small piece was saved and is still visible on Lambs Conduit Street if you know where to look.

Just off the northern end of Lambs Conduit Street is Long Yard, where on a side wall are the remains of the old conduit head from which people would once have drawn their clean water.

Not much remains alas, but it’s not just an important piece of London history, it’s how the whole area gained its name.

The text on the stone bar reads:

Lambs Conduit is the Property of the City of London
this Pump is Erected for the Benefit of the Publick

A since lost sign above the stone arch used to indicate that the conduit itself stood about ten feet from where the arch is preserved today.

In 1905, part of the original water pipes laid by William Lambe was discovered under the road outside 26 Theobalds Road when it was dug up to lay tram tracks. Apart from the name given to the area and the street, Lamb Conduit’s memory also lives on in the recently restored drinking fountain at the northern end of the street.