By about 1776 the village of Kentish Town had become a somewhat populous place, and in the summer-time was much resorted to by Londoners, who took lodgings there, or made brief excursions thither. In 1788 the Assembly House was taken by a Mr. Thomas Wood, who specially advertised his trap-ball and skittle-ground, pleasant summer-house, and extensive garden. The house was pulled down in 1853, and its site and that of the garden covered by houses. The Assembly House tavern (No. 298 Kentish Town Road) and a police station have been built on the baiting ground and yard that were formerly in front of the old house. [Miller’s _St. Pancras_, p. 294, ff.; Roffe’s _St. Pancras_, pp. 10, 11; Walford, v. p. 320; Palmer’s _St. Pancras_, p. 62, ff.] VIEWS. 1. “The Assembly Rooms, Kentish Town, 1750,” Walford, v. p. 313. 2. “The Old Assembly House, Kentish Town,” May 1853; drawn and etched by W. B. Rye, _Etchings_, London, 1857. WHITE CONDUIT HOUSE White Conduit House was originally a small ale-house of the seventeenth century, and, according to tradition, the workmen who built it were carousing there to celebrate its completion on the day of the execution of Charles I. It derived its name from the water-conduit, faced with white stone, which stood in a field nearly opposite. In 1731 White Conduit House was still a one-storied building, but between that date and about 1745 it was pulled down, or altered,[134] and a Long Room added. From about 1745 the garden was well laid out, and possessed a circular fish-pond and a number of pleasant arbours. Robert Bartholomew, the proprietor in 1754, added a long walk, and, to prevent his visitors being in the “least incommoded from people in the fields,” constructed a fence some seven feet in height. Hot loaves, tea, coffee and liquors ‘in the greatest perfection’ were the refreshments offered, and he assured those who drank his milk, procured directly from the cow, that his animals “eat no grains.” Cricket was played at this time (1754) in a meadow adjoining the house; bats and balls being provided by the proprietor.[135] The house contained rooms for tea-drinking, and also the Long Room, from whence “is the most copious prospects and airy situation of any now in vogue,” a description ungrammatical but correct, for White Conduit House at this time, and until about 1775, was picturesquely situated. Standing on rising ground, and environed by pleasant country lanes and pastures, it commanded towards the north fine views of Hampstead and Highgate.