Statue of Hugh Myddelton, Islington Green

The statue standing before you on Islington Green honors Sir Hugh Myddelton, a seventeenth century entrepreneur who fundamentally transformed London by engineering a way to provide the city with clean water. The monument depicts him in Elizabethan dress, clutching a map of the New River in one hand and a spade in the other to symbolize the massive scale of the project he undertook. This work, completed in sixteen thirteen, saw the construction of an artificial watercourse spanning nearly forty miles to transport spring water from Hertfordshire directly into the heart of London. When the project faced severe financial ruin, Myddelton secured a partnership with King James the First to ensure its completion, a move that established one of the first successful joint-stock utility companies in history. The sculptor, John Thomas, crafted this likeness from Sicilian marble, and it was unveiled in eighteen sixty-two by William Gladstone, who was then the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The base of the statue was designed to function as a public drinking fountain, serving as a physical reminder of the life-giving water Myddelton brought to the city.