BAGNIGGE WELLS
A modern public-house, “Ye olde Bagnigge Wells,” standing on the west side of the King’s Cross Road (formerly Bagnigge Wells Road), and the building yard of Messrs. Cubitt, behind it, now occupy part of the site of these famous Wells.
Bagnigge House, the building which formed the nucleus of the place of entertainment called Bagnigge Wells, is believed to have been a summer residence of Nell Gwynne. It fronted Bagnigge Wells Road, and was pleasantly situated, lying in a hollow called Bagnigge Wash (or Vale); and being well sheltered on all sides, except the south, by the rising grounds of Primrose Hill, Hampstead and Islington.[50]
In 1757 a Mr. Hughes, described as a man curious in gardening, and apparently the tenant of Bagnigge House, found that the more he watered his plants with the water drawn from a well in the garden, the less they seemed to thrive. He asked the opinion of a doctor, John Bevis, who analysed the water, and pronounced it a valuable chalybeate. At the same time the water of another well, sunk in the ground adjoining Bagnigge House, was discovered to possess cathartic properties. Hughes, realising the commercial possibilities of these wells, opened the house and gardens to the public, at least as early as April 1759. The place was open daily, including Sundays, and in 1760 Bevis published a pamphlet, setting forth the virtues of the waters.
The chalybeate well was situated just behind the house, and the cathartic well about forty yards north of the chalybeate. The water of the two wells, which were each some twenty feet in depth, was, however, brought to one point, and thence drawn from a double pump placed within a small circular edifice consisting of pillars supporting a dome, erected behind the house. This was commonly called the Temple. The chalybeate was of a ferruginous character having “an agreeable and sprightly sub-acid tartness,” and was, according to Bevis, “apt to communicate a kind of giddiness with an amazing flow of spirits and afterwards a propensity to sleep if exercise be not interposed.” The purging water left a “distinguishable brackish bitterness on the palate,” and three half-pints were “sufficient for most people,” without the addition of salts to quicken their virtue.
The charge for drinking the water at the pump was threepence: half a guinea entitled the visitor to its use throughout the season. At a later date when Bagnigge Wells was mainly frequented for its tea-gardens, a general charge of sixpence was made for admission.
The Long Room,[51] the old banqueting hall of Bagnigge House, was about seventy-eight feet by twenty-eight feet with a rather low ceiling and panelled walls. At one end of the room was a distorting mirror, a source of considerable amusement, which, for instance, revealed to Captain Tommy Slender of the Middlesex Militia, so odd a figure, that he was almost “hyp’d to death.” Filled with apprehension he consulted a physician, who understanding the use of the concave and convex mirror made his patient take copious draughts of the water, and, after pocketing his fee, led him to another panel of the glass, where the Captain beheld a portly well-conditioned man. Vastly pleased he went home convinced of the virtues of the wells. At the other end of the room was a good organ[52] which provided music for the company. A water organ was also to be heard in the grounds. The organ performances were prohibited on Sundays by the magistrates from about 1772, apparently with the idea of rendering the attractions of Bagnigge Wells less dangerously seductive. The organ was, however, played regularly on the week-day afternoons.[53]
“THE BREAD AND BUTTER MANUFACTORY, OR THE HUMORS OF BAGNIGGE WELLS,” 1772.
(INTERIOR OF LONG ROOM.)
From about 1760 till near the end of the eighteenth century Bagnigge Wells was a popular resort. Some hundreds of visitors were sometimes to be found in the morning for the water-drinking, and early breakfasts were provided. In the afternoon the Long Room and the gardens were thronged by tea-drinkers, especially on Sundays. Stronger beverages were not unknown, and a bowl of good negus was a feature here. The lawyer, the man about town, and the active city merchant, no less than the gouty, and the hypochondriac, came to while away an hour or two:—
Ye gouty old souls and rheumaticks crawl on,
Here taste these blest springs, and your tortures are gone;
Ye wretches asthmatick, who pant for your breath,
Come drink your relief, and think not of death.
Obey the glad summons, to Bagnigge repair,
Drink deep of its streams, and forget all your care.
The distemper’d shall drink and forget all his pain,
When his blood flows more briskly through every vein;
The headache shall vanish, the heartache shall cease,
And your lives be enjoyed in more pleasure and peace.
Obey then the summons, to Bagnigge repair,
And drink an oblivion to pain and to care.[54]
The city matron deemed it the very home of fashion:—
Bon Ton’s the space ’twixt Saturday and Monday,
And riding in a one-horse chair on Sunday:
’Tis drinking tea on summer afternoons
At Bagnigge Wells with china and gilt spoons.[55]
With “genteel females” there mingled others of decidedly bad reputation.[56] Even a feminine pickpocket[57] was not unknown. The notorious John Rann,[58] who, as Dr. Johnson observed, towered above the common mark as a highwayman, was a visitor at Bagnigge Wells, and a favourite with some of the ladies there. On 27 July, 1774, Rann was brought before Sir John Fielding after one of his escapades, but was acquitted, the magistrate exhorting him in a pathetic manner to forsake his evil ways. On the Sunday following (31 July), he appeared at Bagnigge Wells with all his old assurance, attired in a scarlet coat, tambour waistcoat, white silk stockings, and a laced hat. On each knee he wore the bunch of eight ribbons, which had gained him his sobriquet of Sixteen Strings Jack. On this occasion his behaviour gave such offence to the company that he was thrown out of one of the windows of the Long Room. About four months later, 30 November, 1774, he was hanged at Tyburn for robbing Dr. Bell, chaplain to the Princess Amelia.
The grounds of Bagnigge Wells were behind the Long Room, and were laid out in formal walks, with hedges of box and holly. There were a number of fine trees, some curiously trimmed, and a pretty flower garden. Ponds containing gold and silver fish, at that time a novelty, were in the gardens; and the pond in the centre had a fountain in the form of a Cupid bestriding a swan from whose beak issued streams of water.
Parallel with the Long Room, and separating the eastern part of the grounds from the western (and by far the larger) portion, ran the river Fleet, with seats on its banks, for such as “chuse to smoke or drink cyder, ale, etc., which are not permitted in other parts of the garden.” Willows, large docks and coarse plants, elder bushes and other shrubs in luxurious profusion, fringed the banks; and we hear of Luke Clennell, the artist, making studies of the foliage.
Three rustic bridges spanned the stream, and amid the trees were two tall leaden figures; one a rustic with a scythe, the other a Phyllis of the hay-fields, rake in hand.
Arbours for tea-drinking, covered with honeysuckle and sweetbriar, surrounded the gardens; and there was a rustic cottage and a grotto. The last named, a small castellated building of two apartments open to the gardens, was brightly decorated in cockney fashion with shells, fossils, and fragments of broken glass. A bowling-green and skittle-alley were among the attractions of the Wells, and a bun-house or bake-house was erected (before 1791) on the south side of the house, but not immediately contiguous to it.
Hughes, the original proprietor, appears to have remained at the Wells till about 1775; and a Mr. John Davis was subsequently the lessee till his death in 1793. During the last twenty years of the eighteenth century the company, for the most part, seems to have consisted of persons of lower rank than formerly:—
Cits to Bagnigge Wells repair
To swallow dust and call it air.
Prentices and their sweethearts, and city matrons with their husbands, frequented the place; while unfledged Templars paraded as fops, and young ensigns sported their new cockades. The morning water-drinking was not neglected, but the full tide of life at Bagnigge was from five to eight p.m. on Sundays, when the gardens were crowded with tea-drinkers. A prentice-song sets forth the delights of the Wells:—
Come prithee make it up, Miss, and be as lovers be
We’ll go to Bagnigge Wells, Miss, and there we’ll have some tea;
It’s there you’ll see the lady-birds perched on the stinging nettles,
The crystal water fountain, and the copper shining kettles.
It’s there you’ll see the fishes, more curious they than whales,
And they’re made of gold and silver, Miss, and wags their little tails;
They wags their little tails, they wags their little tails.
Frontispiece for the Sunday Ramble;
Being a View in Bagnigge Wells Garden, drawn on ye Spot.
Salubrious Waters, Tea, and Wine,
Here you may have, and also dine;
But, as ye through the Garden rove,
Beware, fond Youths, the Darts of Love.
About 1810 the place became more exclusively the resort of the lower classes, though the situation was still somewhat picturesque. In 1813 Thomas Salter, the lessee, became bankrupt, and Bagnigge Wells was put up for sale by auction[59] on four days in the month of December. Not a bench or shrub was omitted: the “excellent fine-toned organ,” the water-organ, the chandeliers from the Long Room, dinner and tea services of Worcester china; the tea-boxes, two hundred drinking tables, four hundred teaboards, and some four hundred dozen of ale and stout. The various rooms and buildings were also offered for sale, including “Nell Gwyn’s house,” the summer-house, the bake-house, the grotto, temple, bridges; the two leaden rustics,[60] the fountains and all the gold and silver fish. Also the pleasure and flower gardens with their greenhouses, all the trees, including a “fine variegated holly tree,” the gooseberry and currant bushes, the hedges, shrubs and flowers.
In the year following, however, the place was re-opened under W. Stock’s management, and though the gardens[61] were now curtailed of all the ground west of the Fleet (at this time a ditch-like, and, on warm evenings, malodorous stream), an attempt was made to revive their popularity. The proprietor’s efforts were not very successful, and during the next few years the premises frequently changed hands. In 1818 the lessee of Bagnigge Wells was Mr. Thorogood, who let it to Mr. Monkhouse (from White Conduit House) about 1831. In April 1831 Monkhouse advertised the Concert Room as being open every evening for musical entertainments, which continued to be the main feature of Bagnigge Wells until its close. In, or before, 1833 Richard Chapman was the proprietor, and John Hamilton in 1834.
In 1838 (August 14th), the lessees, Mr. and Miss Foster, announced for their benefit night an array of concert-room talent:—Le Mœurs of Bagnigge Wells, Mr. Darking (of the London concerts), Miss Anderson (from the Mogul Concert Room), Messrs. Sutton and Gibson (Sadler’s Wells), Master Clifford (Yorkshire Stingo), Mr. H. Smith (Royal Union Saloon), Mr. Boyan (Queen’s Head Rooms), Mr. Roberts (White Conduit); and the songs included “Tell me, my heart,” “Billy the Snob” (in character), “Pat was a darling boy.” A scene was given from Julius Cæsar; a soliloquy from Hamlet; and one Simpson exhibited classical delineations of the Grecian statues. The concert was followed by a ball, in which were danced a Highland fling (by a Mr. McDougal), a double comic medley dance, a waterman’s hornpipe, and a hornpipe in real fetters and chains. During the evening a balloon was sent up from the grounds; and sixpence procured admission to the whole. On other concert nights the admission was as low as threepence. Among the singers in the latest days of Bagnigge Wells were the well-known Paddy O’Rourke, Alford, Ozealey, Prynn, Box, Sloman, Booth, Gibbs and Dickie. Besides the songs and duets, portions of plays were acted, though without scenery or special dresses.
The year 1841 witnessed the last entertainment at Bagnigge Wells, when on 26 March there was an evening performance (admission sixpence) of glees, farces and comic songs. The dismantling of the place was now begun. The grotto, which was already in a very dilapidated condition, was destroyed by some passers by in the early morning of 6 April, 1841.
In 1843 all that remained was the north end of the Long Room, and, according to a representative of Punch, who visited the spot in September of that year, the old well was filled up with rubbish and mosaics of oyster shells. Shortly afterwards, the present tavern was built; Mr. Negus, a name suggestive of other days, being the tenant in 1850.
[Pinks’s Clerkenwell; Walford’s O. & N. London; Palmer’s St. Pancras, p. 77, ff.; Wheatley’s London P. & P.; Kearsley’s Strangers’ Guide; Noorthouck’s London, p. 752, ff.; Clinch’s Marylebone and St. Pancras, p. 148, ff.; Malcolm’s Lond. Rediv. (1803), p. 237; Sunday Ramble (various editions); Rimbault in Notes and Queries, 1st ser. ii. 228; 4th ser. xi. 24; Era Almanack, 1871 (account of Bagnigge Wells by Blanchard).]
VIEWS.
The following views may be noted:—
1. “Ancient stone from Bagnigge Wells,” engraved in Pinks, p. 558.
2. “The Bread and Butter Manufactory, or the Humors of Bagnigge Wells,” a mezzotint published by Carrington Bowles, 1772; cp. an aquatint print from a painting by Sanders, published by J. R. Smith in 1772.
3. Mr. Deputy Dumpling and Family enjoying a summer afternoon, a print (1780) published by Carrington Bowles. Crace, Cat., p. 583, No. 84.
4. Bagnigge Wells, near Battle Bridge, a print (1777). Crace, Cat., p. 583, No. 82; engraved in Walford’s O. & N. London, ii. p. 294.
5. Bagnigge Wells Garden, frontispiece engraved for the Sunday Ramble, “drawn on ye spot,” Page sculp. (circ. 1774?) (W. Coll.); engraved in Pinks, p. 563.
6. “A Bagnigge Wells scene: or, No resisting temptation.” An engraving published by Carrington Bowles, 1780. Crace, Cat., p. 583, No. 85; a hand-coloured mezzotint in Brit. Mus. Catal. of Prints, vol. iv., No. 4,545.
7. View of the Tea-gardens and Bun-house, from a drawing, taken in 1790 (?); copy in sepia in W. Coll.; an almost identical view is reproduced in Rogers’s Views of Pleasure Gardens of London, p. 23, “from a drawing made in 1827.”
8. “The Road to Ruin” (with figure of John Rann). Crace, Cat., p. 583, No. 86.
9. A view taken from the centre bridge in the gardens of Bagnigge Wells. An example in Crosby Coll.; also reproduced in Ashton’s The Fleet.
10. The original garden entrance to Bagnigge Wells (circ. 1800?) J. T. Smith del. Etched in Rogers’s Views of Pleasure Gardens of London, p. 26.
11. View of Bagnigge Wells Gardens, 1828, engraving in Cromwell’s Clerkenwell, p. 414; reproduced in Pinks, p. 567.
12. A collection of manuscript notes, sketches and drawings, relating to Bagnigge Wells in its later days, made by Anthony Crosby. (Guildhall Library, London.)
13. “Residence of Nell Gwynne, Bagnigge Wells.” An engraving, C. J. Smith, sc. 1844; Crace, Cat., p. 583, No. 88; Pinks, p. 559.