Bagnigge Wells Spa

This stone plaque marks the entrance to the former Bagnigge Wells Spa in King's Cross Road. This Spa was one of many in the area where pure water sprung out of the ground near the River Fleet, which flowed behind it. The 1680 house that it was originally attached to (the current building is mid-19th century) was reputed to be the country house of Nell Gwyn, actress and mistress of Charles II.

In the 18th century the site was developed into a Spa with a banqueting hall and pleasure gardens down to the river. By the 19th century, the river was becoming polluted and there was little "countryside" left that had not been developed. The River Fleet was culverted and the Spa closed in 1841.

The plaque says that the house was near the "Pindar a Wakefeilde". According to the London Encyclopedia, Mount Pleasant Fort, sited underneath the current sorting office, was also known as Wakefield or Pindar's Fort. In 1517 a hostelry called Pindars of Wakefield was built on the west side of Grey's Inn Road, and this is presumably what the plaque refers to as it is only 5 minutes' walk across what would have been countryside.

In 1878 the hostelry was rebuilt on the east side of the road and was a popular haunt of Karl Marx and Lenin. It housed an "old time music hall" until the 1980s, and is now a pub called the Water Rats (extra).