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large wellof stone arched over and “curiously carved.” Here was found an apparently endless supply of mildchalybeate water—water rich in iron—that until recent times could be purchased in theSadler’s Wells Theatre. It was also employed in the theatre’s air-cooling system. The well itself survives. It is of some interest that the theatre or “musick house” was established at the beginning of the eighteenth century and has continued its life ever since. In the nineteenth century it was described as the “Aquatic Theatre” and was known for the “real watereffects” upon the stage. Other entertainments were on offer. One performer would eat a live cock, complete with feathers and innards, washed down with half a pint of brandy.

    The “musick house” at Sadler’sWells, in 1813 (illustration credit Ill.7)
    Much of the London water springing to the surface was impregnated with various minerals imparted by the gravel and the clay, and so as a result innumerablespas or “spaws” were established in the eighteenth century to cure certain common ailments. A good mixture of water with iron, or magnesium sulphate, or sodium sulphate, “strengthens the Stomach, makes gross and fat bodies lean and lean bodies fleshy.” In the words of another contemporary pamphleteer, “this water taken internally would prevent or cure Obstructions and Tumours of the Liver, Spleen … also Flatus Hypochondriacus, Black and Yellow Jaundice, Scurvy and Cholerick Passion.”Chalybeate water, in particular, was a sovereign curative for those with skindiseases or diseases of the eye. Eyes and water have an affinity. That is the significance of the lachrymatory. In the nineteenth century the water was more commonly applied to mangy dogs.
    An eighteenth-century street cry of London rang out with “any fresh and fair spring water here!” Something in the atmosphere of the wells encourages the ministrations of what has become the medical profession. The houses of fashionable doctors, inDevonshire Place andUpper Wimpole Street, lie directly above the wells and gardens ofMarylebone Spa. But the waters all went backinto the ground. The only uncontaminated water from a London spring, at the beginning of the twentieth century, was being drawn fromStreatham Well. That also has now been buried.
    The names remain as a token of past time.Spa Fields, opposite Sadler’sWells, is now the site of a tower block. A public house in the immediate vicinity, the London Spa at the corner ofRosoman Street andExmouth Market, was opened on 14 July 1685 byRobert Boyle. The eminent scientist might not have anticipated that, on the same site, a public house with the same name would stand at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In the winter of 1851 an ancient well was found beneath the yard of the Lamb public house in Lamb’s Conduit Street; the well has gone but the public house survives.
    Wells and springs are places of transition, where the underworld rises out of the ground. They encourage song and dance; they are the site of ritual. The plethora of London names such as Spring Gardens, Well Walk and Wells Street testifies to the extent and variety of these waters. We also haveShadwell andStockwell andCamberwell. It would be weary work to enumerate all the buried wells of London. It is enough to know that they once existed.

The Westbourne rises inHampstead and makes its way to the Thames atChelsea. On its route it passes throughKilburn and gathers strength before flowing southwards throughPaddington towards Hyde Park. It once replenishedthe Serpentine, and that body of water still rests in the valley it created. The knight’s bridge was over the Chelsea reach ofthe Westbourne, giving its name to the neighbourhood. The area ofBayswater was also named after the river. Kilburn, or
cyne-berna
(royal stream), is another beneficiary.
    On its journey to the Thames the Westbourne passes through a great iron pipe to be seen above the platforms ofSloane