St. Govor’s Well

While one might not expect to find natural springs in central London, a few arise within the urban landscape. One such spring is located near the southwest corner of Kensington Gardens.

This spring is commonly described as being an “ancient spring,” but it was only given the name St. Govor’s Well in 1856 by Benjamin Hall, the First Commissioner of Works who would later be entitled Lord Llanover. Hall chose the name St. Govor for the well as a reference to a sixth-century hermit who was the patron saint of a church in Llanover in Wales. Except for Hall’s connection to Llanover, this spring otherwise has no connection to St. Govor.

The original nineteenth-century well built on this site was a shallow hole cut into the ground with a masonry wall.  Stairs on one side led downwards to a tap above a basin. The current cylindrical structure with the wrap-around inscription dates to 1976.

Notably, the well makes a brief appearance in one of the chapters of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. In the chapter, a young girl named Mamie attempts to meet Peter Pan, who was living with the fairies in the park. To do so, Mamie needs to hide from the adults in the park until after the park closes and the fairies come out, so she hides in St. Govor’s Well. This scene is illustrated in some older editions of the book.