SEnine


Conduit Head, has been renovated thanks to a joint initiative by English Heritage and Greenwich Council.


Royal Water Works One


of SE9’s most important ancient monuments,


water to Eltham Palace through a series of underground pipes and chambers.


The 16th century structure, one of the oldest brick buildings in London, has been secured after years of languishing on the EH’s ‘at risk’ register for listed buildings in poor condition.


English Heritage ‘At Risk’ Register 2010


Avery Hill Winter Gardens. Grade 2 listed, poor Old brick wall, front of Nos 34 and 36 Court Yard. Grade 2*, fair The Greyhound public house, 86 Eltham High Street. Grade 2, poor


Conduit Head is one of only five scheduled ancient monuments in the borough and one of only 200 across the capital.


Work costing £15,000 has seen expert craftsmen from PAYE Stonework


based at


Mottingham station securing the brickwork and filling gaps with hand made replacements.


Graffiti and rubbish has been removed from the inner chamber with new secure grilles put in place to prevent future access.


The brickwork was crumbling due to neglect and the roots of a 20 year old buddleia bush which had made its roots in the mortar and was causing wide cracks in its façade.


Its importance historically reflects the leading role of Eltham Palace in the Royal estate in Tudor Times; Henry VIII spent his early years and returned periodically to hunt and escape diseases which afflicted central London.


The innovation of a fresh water supply on tap was matched only by a similar arrangement at Hampton Court, with similar structures still existing.


Water would have been drained off from the waterlogged fields between Southend Crescent and Bexley Road into Conduit Head where it would have been put through a series of ‘settling tanks’ to filter out impurities.


From the Conduit, the water would have been channelled underground in lead pipes to the Palace.


Such was the importance of the water source that it is thought the guards would have been stationed in the Conduit to avoid the possibility of contamination.


FEATURE


Pictures by Dawn OConnor & John Webb


An interpretation board will be installed early in the New Year giving details of the conduit system which was in operation in Tudor times to provide fresh drinking


Join a club, enjoy life 17


A possible route of the conduit


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