This article was originally just about White Conduit House and White Conduit Fields, the site of a famous 18th century spa just to the west of the Cloudesley estate, but has evolved into an account of how this site became the birthplace of cricket with Thornhill Gardens being the last green space remaining as evidence of the former cricket fields. Jenny has carried out extensive research and written up the story as a most entertaining account referenced in the update at the bottom of the page.
White Conduit House started life in the late 17th century as a tea garden where city dwellers could escape for the grassy fields and relatively clean air of Islington. According to Oliver Goldsmith it was a site where "the inhabitants of London often assemble to celebrate a feast of hot rolls and butter". For over a century from the 1750s to the 1850s the curved front of White Conduit House and its pleasure gardens hosted not just cricket matches played on White Conduit Fields to the North West, but a wide range of entertainments of all kinds, as illustrated in the images below. A good account of White Conduit can be found in British History Online, here.
Update, December 2019. Little Georgia Restaurant, at No 10 Penton St where it meets Dewey Road, is inscribed "White Conduit House" at the top - see processed photo below. Clearly it is not the original building, but it marks the site, which we can confirm using a screenshot from the excellent Layers of London website, where a Greenwood map of 1828 is superimposed on a street map from today. The gardens to the East behind White Conduit House presumably formed part of the facility. They are now for the most part occupied by buildings between Tolpuddle St and Dewey Rd, although the South part of Culpeper Gardens is still evidence of the gardens today.
Update, February 2022. As mentioned elsewhere in this website, White Conduit Fields was the birthplace of the MCC, owner of the Lord's cricket ground. Richard from Cloudesley Square has unearthed this entertaining account of how a Mr Thomas Lord was responsible for this development, apparently actually physically moving the turf via a number of sites before establishing the present day Lord's in St John's Wood.
Update, May 2025. Following extensive research by John Price, aided and abetted by our Jenny, it turns out that Thornhill Gardens was on the site of the White Conduit Cricket Club grounds and can therefore lay claim to being the birthplace of cricket! You can read Jenny's article for "Howzat" on the subject here.
Following this, Jenny organized a celebration on 20th May at Thornhill Gardens at which a plaque donated by John Price was unveiled and an impromptu cricket match took place. Jenny's wonderful account of this joyous event contains several splendid photos taken by our talented resident photographer Kieran in addition to those below.
John Price and Jenny
Jenny and Caroline
