The New River Head is a reservoir built by the New River Company in the 17th century to provide fresh water to London. An unnamed Myddelton Passage was a path around the reservoir and features on Rocque’s 1750s mapping.
Myddelton Square is a Georgian-style square built from the 1820 onwards and when Myddleton Passage received its name.
In the late nineteenth century, members of the Metropolitan Police’s G Division, based out of King’s Cross Police Station, took to carving their collar numbers into the wall of Myddelton Passage.
A theory as to why this happened is that Myddelton Passage had a crime-filled reputation in the 19th century. Bored officers were assigned the duty of guarding the passage and spend some time carving their names into the mortar.
