Coombe Conduit
Historic site · Coombe, England
Coombe Conduit, Coombe Lane West, KT2 7HG, is a Tudor spring-water collection house that gathered water from the Coombe springs and piped it under the Thames to Hampton Court Palace. It is a scheduled monument, NHLE 1002015, and the conduit house is listed Grade II*, NHLE 1080099. English Heritage looks after it with the Coombe Conduit Association and entry is free. The standing strapline reads 'Open fourth weekend of the month, Apr - Oct', 11am to 2pm, and the dated 2026 season begins in June: 27 and 28 June, 25 and 26 July, 22 and 23 August, 26 and 27 September, and 24 and 25 October. The site is otherwise closed and cannot be visited outside those weekends.
History
The conduit was one of three heads that supplied Hampton Court Palace — Coombe, Gallows and Ivy — and the system ran for roughly 350 years, delivering water until 1876, though the supply had become intermittent before then. The two other conduits survive in Coombe and are separately designated: Gallows Conduit is a scheduled monument, NHLE 1002016, with its conduit house Grade II*, NHLE 1080062, and Ivy Conduit is a scheduled monument, NHLE 1005554, with its conduit house Grade II, NHLE 1080063. A brick reservoir 270 m south-west of Gallows Conduit is a fourth scheduled monument of the same system, NHLE 1002041. Four of the borough's six scheduled monuments are parts of this one Tudor waterworks.
Visit
Coombe Lane West, Kingston upon Thames KT2 7HG