Ivy Conduit House (Circa 120 Metres South of Holy Cross Preparatory School)

Ivy Conduit House

A conduit house built in 1538–40 on George Road, Kingston upon Thames, approximately 120 metres south of Holy Cross Preparatory School. Also known as Bush Conduit House, it is a single building comprising two brick-built compartments.

The front elevation features a brick arch with brick voussoirs, while the side walls expose their brick cores. The outer compartment contains a four-centred brick vault with recesses in the walls, and plasterwork survives in the interior above ground level. The inner compartment, reached by two steps through an arched opening at the rear, has an irregular shape because it was constructed to follow the course of a feeder stream entering from the south side. Concealed beneath the current floor are the original floor and remains of a lead tank and pipes.

The building was constructed as part of a new water supply system for Hampton Court Palace, drawing from springs at Coombe approximately 5 kilometres to the north-east. Following King Henry VIII's acquisition of Hampton Court, a greater water supply was needed, maintained at higher pressure than the existing conduit at Hampton village (which had been established by either Sir Giles Daubeney or Thomas Wolsey). After the suppression of Merton Priory in 1538, land in upper Kingston was set aside for this new system. Records from 1538 to 1545 mention charges for the conduit and a sum of £100 spent on its construction.

Water was collected at the head of the springs in Coombe in water tanks housed within brick buildings known as conduit houses. Three conduit houses were built—Coombe Conduit, Gallows Conduit, and Ivy Conduit—all of which survive. The water flowed under gravity through lead pipes to the Palace, passing beneath the rivers Hogsmill and Thames via several tamkin houses. These small brick buildings contained stopcocks and expansion tanks allowing isolation of pipe sections for leak detection and repair. Gallows Tamkin, one of these buildings, remains standing.

Repair work is recorded in the early 17th and early 18th centuries. In 1742, the Office of Works ordered a survey and undertook major renovation to increase efficiency; Ivy Conduit House appears in a detailed plan of the Hampton Court conduit system drawn by Thomas Fort as part of this survey. The conduit continued supplying Hampton Court until 1876. The building was damaged by bombing during the Second World War.