A spring of chalybeate water was discovered on the premises of this inn about 1685, and was a special inducement held out to the public by the proprietor, John Halhed, vintner, to visit his house. In August 1685, Halhed, in advertising the virtues of the water, stated that no less an authority than Robert Boyle, the chemist, had adjudged and openly declared it to be the strongest and very best of these late found out medicinal waters. The honest vintner, in giving other local wells their due, maintained that his was equivalent, if not better, in virtue, goodness, and operation, to that of Tunbridge (so mightily cry’d up) or any other water yet known. On 14 July, 1685, the house was solemnly nominated and called the London Spaw, by Robert Boyle, in the presence of “an eminent, knowing, and more than ordinary ingenious apothecary ... besides the said John Halhed and other sufficient men.” The name of the Fountain seems thenceforth to have been superseded by that of the London Spa. In inviting persons of quality to make a trial of the spring, Halhed expressed the wish that the greatness of his accommodation were suitable to the goodness of his waters, although he was not without convenient apartments and walks for both sexes. The poor were to be supplied with the water gratis. For a few years subsequent to 1714 the place appears to have fallen into neglect; but it afterwards was once more frequented, and in 1720 the author of _May Day_[29] writes:-- Now nine-pin alleys, and now skettles grace, The late forlorn, sad, desolated place; Arbours of jasmine fragrant shades compose And numerous blended companies enclose. On May-day the milkmaids and their swains danced in the gardens to the music of the fiddler. Holiday folk flocked to test the virtues of the spring, and from this time onwards, the London Spa enjoyed some degree of popularity. In the summer of 1733, _Poor Robin’s Almanack_ records how-- Sweethearts with their sweethearts go To Islington or London Spaw; Some go but just to drink the water, Some for the ale which they like better. The annual Welsh fair, held in the Spa Field hard by, must have brought additional custom to the tavern, and in 1754 the proprietor, George Dodswell, informed the public that they would meet with the most inviting usage at his hands, and that during the fair there would be the “usual entertainment of roast pork with the oft-famed flavoured Spaw ale.” From this date onwards the London Spa would appear to have been merely frequented as a tavern.[30] The present public-house was built on the old site in 1835. [Illustration: MAY DAY AT THE LONDON SPA. 1720.] [The London Spaw, an advertisement, August 1685, folio sheet in British Museum; Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_.] VIEWS. 1. A view of the London Spa in Lempriere’s set of views, 1731; Crace, _Cat._ p. 588, No. 41. Cp. Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_, p. 168.