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The network was probably mostly lead pipes, but almost certainly there were originally hundreds of feet of passageway in addition to the pipes, along with interesting cisterns and a multitude of conduit-related infrastructure. It's highly likely that some parts of the system still exist. Getting permission to do anything in the Royal Parks is usually almost impossible, so sadly the intransigence of the Royal Parks Agency will continue to stifle historical and archaeological investigation as it has done for decades.
These conduits are, however, much older than the 17th or even 16th centuries:
A Supply of water by conduit from this spot [a conduit memorial in Hyde Park] was granted to the abbey of Westminster with the Manor of Hyde by King Edward the Confessor. The Manor was resumed by the Crown in 1536 but the springs as a head and original fountain of water were preserved to the abbey by the charter of Queen Elizabeth in 1560.1
Edward was the last of the Saxon kings2 - allowing this conduit system to claim an antiquity of almost a thousand years. It therefore pre-dates most British mediaeval monastic systems, and knocks on the door of Saxon London (Lundenwic), whose focus had shifted a mile west of Roman Londinium to the Covent Garden area. The people of Lundenwic would certainly have been aware of the springs in what is now Hyde Park, and would probably have made efforts to bring the water eastwards to help supply the expanding town. It would not be surprising if there were remains of Saxon plumbing still intact under the lawns of Hyde Park.
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2 Technically the last Saxon king was Edgar the Aetheling, who was proclaimed king briefly in late 1066, but was deposed after about eight weeks.
