The annual Welsh fair, held in the Spa Field hard by, must have brought additional custom to the tavern, and in 1754 the proprietor, George Dodswell, informed the public that they would meet with the most inviting usage at his hands, and that during the fair there would be the “usual entertainment of roast pork with the oft-famed flavoured Spaw ale.” From this date onwards the London Spa would appear to have been merely frequented as a tavern.[30] The present public-house was built on the old site in 1835.
MAY DAY AT THE LONDON SPA. 1720.
[The London Spaw, an advertisement, August 1685, folio sheet in British Museum; Pinks’s Clerkenwell.]
VIEWS.
1. A view of the London Spa in Lempriere’s set of views, 1731; Crace, Cat. p. 588, No. 41. Cp. Pinks’s Clerkenwell, p. 168.
2. Engraving of the Spa garden, T. Badeslade, inv.; S. Parker, sculp.; frontispiece to May Day, or the Origin of Garlands, 1720.
THE NEW WELLS, NEAR THE LONDON SPA
Houses in Lower Rosoman Street,[31] Clerkenwell, west side, about one hundred yards from the London Spaw public-house, now occupy the site of this place of amusement.
The New Wells commanded a pleasant prospect of the fields and country beyond; but nothing is known of the medicinal waters, and the prominent feature of the place was a theatre, probably intended to rival Sadler’s Wells, in which entertainments, consisting of dancing, tumbling, music and pantomime were given from 1737 (or earlier[32]) till 1750. The purchase of a pint of wine or punch was generally the passport necessary for admission, and the gardens were open on Sunday as well as on week-day evenings. The entertainments usually began at five o’clock, and concluded about ten. In 1738, there were comic songs and dancing, an exhibition of views of Vauxhall, and a whimsical, chymical and pantomimical entertainment called the Sequel.