It is not clear whether St. Bride’s Well  takes its name from St. Bride’s Church constructed in 11^th century. Certainly the name Brydewell is noted in property owned by the Bishop of St David’s in 1487. The Palace of Bridewell was built nearby and thus Stow (1598) notes:

“fell to ruine, insomuch that the verie platform thereof remyned for great part wast, and as it were, but a layestall of filth and rubbish; only a fayre Well remained there… until King Henry the 8 builded a stately and beautiful house thereupon, giving it to name Bridewell’”

The well was outside of the church until the 15^th century rebuilding when it was incorporated into the south-east corner of the church. Hone (1826–7), who says:

“the last public use of the water of St Bride’s well drained it… Several men were engaged in filling thousands of bottles, a day or two before the 19th of July 1821, on which day his majesty, King George IV was crowned at Westminster from the cast-iron pump over St Bride’s well, in Bride-Lane.”

I was informed by Mr. Eric Davies informed me that the well ran dry after an enterprising local pub landlord decided to sell water from the well and perhaps this is what Hone above alludes to. The nearby Bridewell Baths were said to have been filled by the spring’s waters explaining perhaps the poor quality of the water. In the crypt museum is a pump tap said to be from the well.

According to Mr. Davies it was the custom to use the water from the well as holy water, to sprinkle on the route of Coronation Processions from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey, which went along Fleet Street and past the church. Milne (1997) it was ‘still remembered in the early twentieth century as the focus of a formal procession which left the chancel and made its way southwards towards it.   A map in the crypt museum notes an unusual feature a south door installed for processions to the well, presumably when the well was at ground level.

After the post-War restoration of the church, the name was assigned to a fountain placed in the northern churchyard, which was removed in 1994. Indeed there appears to be some confusion over what happened to the well and when. Furlong (accessed 2013) states that it disappeared under modern office complexes however the church identify it as being in the crypt and according to Mr. Davies was lost over 100 years ago.

However, according to correspondent the well was still there in the 1970s and was full of water and indeed in the 1990s when a workman was asked whether there was a well there he said there was. However, there is no well to be found at the site in the crypt and indeed the flooring of this chamber appears to be modern. The loss of the well and the adamant statement that the well was there in the 1970s is clearly at odds with the opinion of Mr. Davies who kindly showed me the site. It is possible that the church filled in the well around the 1990s as a response to pagan usage of the crypt and church around St Bride’s Day, in particular the usage of the plane tree said to mark the site of the well and fed off it. The site of the well is shown on maps in the crypt museum be found in the crypt, but not the section which is open to the public.

In the crypt museum the tap from the well which provided a public water supply is shown in one of the museum display cabinets. Outside appears to be an aperture and small trough fed by a pipe which may have been fed from the spring or alternatively from the drains above.  One hopes that the mooted but expensive improvements planned to be made to the church will reveal the well once and for all and restore it.

Extracted from Holy Wells and healing springs of London and Middlesex