The New River Company, formally The Governor and Company of the New River brought from Chadwell and Amwell to London, was a privately-owned water supply company in London, England, originally formed around 1609 and incorporated in 1619 by royal charter. Founded by Hugh Myddelton with the involvement of King James I, it was one of the first joint-stock utility companies, and paved the way for large-scale private investment in London's water infrastructure in the centuries which followed.
Sir Hugh Myddelton, founder of the New River Company
Sir John Backhouse, a founding member of the New River Company. The Round Pond, the company's first reservoir, can be seen in the painting he rests his hand on.
Sir Hugh Myddelton , 1st Baronet was a Welsh clothmaker, entrepreneur, mine-owner, goldsmith, banker and self-taught engineer. The spelling of his name is inconsistently reproduced, but Myddelton appears to be the earliest, and most consistently used in place names associated with him.
Portrait of Sir Hugh by Cornelius Johnson
The New Gauge House (1856) which regulates the abstraction of water from the River Lea into the start of the New River in the foreground.
Statue of Sir Hugh Myddelton by John Thomas, on Islington Green previously known as Paradise Row near the terminus of the New River. Unveiled 1862 by William Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer and soon to become Prime Minister.
Statue of Sir Hugh Myddelton on the Royal Exchange, London