Hyde Park from the corner of Mount Street

Hyde Park can be seen from the lead roof of a building on the south corner of Mount Street and Park Lane. Until circa 1829 the site immediately south of Mount Street was occupied by sheds and an ice-house. They belonged to William Skeate, who demolished them to erect three houses. One may surmise that the lead roof in the picture may be the roof of the ice-house. Pedestrians, equestrians, and horse drawn vehicles move up and down Park Lane, a water-cart dampens the roadway and immediately within the Park railings a cow grazes. Beyond the railings is to be seen the Hyde Park Reservoir supplied by the Chelsea Water Works Company, which operated from a system of basins and canals connected to the Thames on the Grosvenor's Pimlico property. The Company obtained a royal warrant to construct the Reservoir in 1725. The Reservoir features on the major surveys of London: Rocque's (1746), Horwood's (1792-99) and Greenwood's (1727).
Horwood's map, and a large bird's-eye view of the Park, 1801 by R. Earldom after Robert Smirke Jun., both show a 'Riding House' between the Ring and the Reservoir. Greenwood's map shows an 'engine', neither of which feature in the present watercolour.

In 1835 the Reservoir was converted into an ornamental basin with a fountain in the middle. Today the site is occupied by the 'Joy of Life' fountain designed by Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones and erected in 1963.