Two Tudor conduit houses in Kingston that once piped spring water under the Thames to Hampton Court Palace
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Two brick conduit houses stand in a back garden in Coombe, on the edge of Kingston upon Thames, built to carry drinking water under the river to the kitchens of Hampton Court Palace. In the upper house, water gathered in a stone tank, settled in a second tank in the lower house downhill, and ran on by gravity through lead pipes to the palace. The scheme was long credited to Cardinal Wolsey, but Henry VIII, who took over the land after Merton Priory closed in 1538, more likely built it; the pipes kept supplying Hampton Court until 1876. In 1943 an elm tree crashed onto the upper conduit house, weakened at the roots by wartime bombing, and wrecked part of its roof and walls, repaired soon after and again in the 1950s. English Heritage opens Coombe Conduit on just a handful of days a year.
