London's Lost Rivers

South East London Folklore

2011-12-09T02:30:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure last night to talk to the legendary SELFS - the South East London Folklore Society. It was, as always, a room full of people who know their rivers and their South East London, so I gave them a special South London-only overview, including the Wandle's liquorice field full of Jutish bones and the spectre of John Ruskin, hauting the banks of the Wandle, the Effra and the Earl's Sluice.

SELFS meets every second Thursday of the month in the upstairs room at the Old King's Head, Borough High Street. Its many pleasures include a rare chance to speak with a portrait of Henry VIII peering over the top of your slides, looking unimpressed, some tasty Cornish ale on tap, and of course the best talks and events listing in London. Thanks to Nigel of Bermondsey.

Big hole in Hampstead

2011-10-28T05:25:00.000-07:00

On Redington Road in Hampstead, all is not as sedate as it may seem. Last week a hole opened up unexpectedly in the middle of the road. And not just any hole, a "gaping cavern". The photo (by Nigel Sutton in the Ham & High) shows Cllr Chris Knight being sucked into its yawning maw.

The article doesn't make the connection, but Redington Road is crossed by the buried River Westbourne on its way down from Branch Hill towards West End Green. It be clearly heard flowing under a manhole cover at the north end of Redington Gardens, and an unmissable valley crosses Redington Road with the river underneath. The Westbourne rolls off the Hampstead Ridge and is also known as the Kilburn further south. It is famous for crossing the District Line at Sloane Square station in a fat pipe.

Not only that, there are tributaries in the area. A local resident tells me he hit water nearby on Oak Hill while sinking piles for his garden wall. The water was flowing, 3.8m below the surface. This is likely to be the reported, but unmapped Tyburn tributary which flows down Oak Hill to Redington Gardens. Another tributary flows into the valley from Telegraph Hill opposite.

The trend for basement extensions in the wealthy back streets has Londoners interested again in long-forgotten streams. It looks as though people would be wise to check what may be under their houses before they book the JCBs.

Ride the rivers

2011-10-28T02:57:00.000-07:00

I am delighted to see that Southwark Cyclists have got creative with Lost London Rivers, and are planning to cycle the lot. What an intrepid set of urban adventurers. Some of these walks will prove a cycling challenge, but I'm sure they're up to it. I'd like to see, for instance, a calvalcade of cyclist rolling down the mews of Mayfair on trail of the Tyburn surprising the Jaguar owners, or bombing across the Broadgate Centre following the Walbrook and, with any luck, annoying the security guards in the process. Be careful on the Elephant and Castle roundabouts though, which have the Neckinger diving beneath them. And some of the wilder Fleet passes on the high ground of Hampstead Heath may require mountain bikes and suspension to navigate safely.

I'd also recommend fixing a dowsing rod to the handle bars to find out whether it works like an automatic pilot. The bikes will find their own way: all you need to do is freewheel.

Underground living

2011-09-23T00:07:00.000-07:00

News from Leamington Spa, where the perennial story of what sewermen find in the sewers is exciting the Leamington Observer. Somewhat lacking in perspective, they report breathlessly that objects recently found in the Leamington sewers include golf balls (quite small really) and a three-piece suite (a what?).

There's something going on here, an inexplicable phenomenon that recurs generation by generation like Springheeled Jack. Furniture, apparently too big to fit through the entrances to a sewer system, has been found underground before. Eric Newby, in his book of travel articles A Traveller's Life, toured several of the London sewers which contain its buried rivers. He was taken on trips along the Fleet and the Tyburn where, explaining at one point that they were below Buckingham Palace, his guide added "You can take it from me that what come down doesn't have 'By Appointment' written on it."

But the same sewermen also told him about the time they found a complete iron bedstead in the Fleet sewer, and concluded that the only way it could have got there was for someone to have dismantled it, and reassembled it below.

Maybe the key to this mystery lies with the the mysterious inhabitants of the Paris Catacombs, who built an underground cinema complex stocked with noir and thrillers, and a a restaurant with "a pressure cooker for making couscous". The Leamington underground doesn't ask for nearly as much, just somewhere to sit in comfort. And maybe indulge in a spot a of golf.

Lost London Rivers launch

2011-09-10T05:01:00.000-07:00

The launch party for London's Lost Rivers: a Walker's Guide will be on Wednesday 14th September, at Clerkenwell Tales bookshop - 30 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QE.

Books will be available at the stunningly discounted price of £10, there will be a display of prints of SF Said's amazing photos, The Effras will be performing an acoustic number, and there will be mini-walk to a pub on the Fleet.

Everyone is welcome. Come along!

London's Lost Rivers - now available

2011-08-25T13:04:00.000-07:00

London's Lost Rivers: a Walker's Guide is now available to order online from Strange Attractor Press. It will be published on 5th September.

It is chock full of river walks - 10 in all - with everything you need to explore London's vanished riverscapes. In the course of these walks you'll peer down drains, listen at manhole covers, find rivers hidden in the bushes, and walk on Thames beaches.

Discover why the Oval is oval; what spirit was made with Fleet water; which buried river was known as the Tigris and which the Nile; which part of south London was the world's lavender capital; and which rivers flow under the Bank of England and Buckingham Palace.

It's an essential book for anyone curious about what lies under their feet.

Test your rivery knowledge

2011-05-20T03:03:00.000-07:00

I recently had the very enjoyable job of setting a round of questions, themed around London's Lost Rivers, for Londonist.com's Lost London quiz.

Here they all are for anyone who wants to test their river knowledge. No prizes are on offer, apart from the intense self-satisfaction of knowing you are well-informed. But I will tell you the answers if you ask nicely.

Which buried London river flows beneath the concourse of King’s Cross Station?

Name the Victorian slum neighbourhood, scene of Bill Sykes’s death in Oliver Twist, which was surrounded by the River Neckinger in Bermondsey?

The first Roman settlement in the City of London was either side of the valley of which river?

The River Westbourne, which flows through Kilburn and Paddington among other areas, was dammed to create which London lake?

Which lost London river flows beneath Buckingham Palace?

What fragrant crop, grown beside the river Wandle, was Mitcham famous for during the 19th century?

There are plenty essential facts where those came from, scattered liberally throughout the forthcoming London's Lost Rivers: a Surface Dweller's Guide.

Robert Elms interview

2011-04-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

I had a 15 minute slot on BBC London this lunchtime, talking to Robert Elms. Until I looked at the details, I thought it was still called GLR which shows how much local radio I listen to. I think I've been missing out though. He was a very well-informed interviewer, and he revealed he was brought up in and around the Silk Stream, the not-quite-as-exotic as it sounds Kenton waterway. And his previous interviewee played the piano like a demon.

I was slightly taken aback by the atmosphere of barely controlled chaos in the BBC studios though. They get their interviewees in place with, ooh, seconds to spare. I always thought there was at least a double-door airlock system so you can't burst into a show that's live on air. There isn't, and you can. Nor is there a big red light to tell you when you're live - just a small red one that's rather equivocally labelled 'Mic', leaving room for just too much doubt to be helpful. Nevertheless, it was pretty exciting.

Rivers of Polaroid

2011-03-01T04:16:00.000-08:00

A nice mention, on his exceptionally informative blog, from Christopher Fowler who has also written a foreword for London's Lost Rivers.

It features a mock-up of cover for my forthcoming book. It won't be the final version - too menacing for the tourist market - but I like a lot anyway. The credit for the deep purple bruised sky goes to The Gentleman Amateur, who took the photo. He is a master of expired polaroid stock, taking pictures that look as though they've been visited by supernatural forces. So I'm delighted that he's taking a set of photos especially for London's Lost Rivers. Looking forward to shooting some black and white images with him later in the week, on the Hampstead Ridge.

Down by the Effra

2010-10-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

Following the River Effra down the steep hill from Crystal Palace into Norwood New Town, the underground river runs under the perimeter wall and through the grounds of the Virgo Fidelis Convent School. The school not only has its own church but a very well-hidden graveyard, only accessible through an unmarked side gate. If you walk down the slope and into the undergrowth at the back of the school you will find a handerkerchief-sized burial ground sitting on the valley floor, directly above the Effra. It's a Gothic scene of brambles and ivy, abandonment and decay.

All the graves are marked with iron crosses in exactly the same format. Half are memorials to deceased sisters of the order, inscribed both with their real names (for example, Alice Agnes Merritt) and their assumed convent identities (transformed into Mother Mary of St. Catherine of Siena). The other half, separated on the other side of the square plot, have no names, just the inscription "My Jesus Mercy". Lost names, and a lost river.

Areas of outstanding urban beauty

2010-09-14T03:46:00.000-07:00

CABE is running a photo competition on this theme with the Photographers' Gallery and Dzine. A good opportunity to get some exposure for your best urban photos.

My entry may not look like a river image, but in fact the Young Vic sits on the banks of the Neckinger, or at least a stream that connected with it. It headed south from Broadwall near Coin Street, crossed the Cut, and continued to the Imperial War Museum, formerly marshy, duck hunting territory.

Effra excavated

2010-09-12T02:52:00.001-07:00

All writers about lost London rivers seem to experience moments of serendipity when they happen to pass, for example, a bomb crater where the River Tyburn can be seen flowing for the first time in 150 years. Or someone shows them a pub cellar with a trapdoor, where an expected watercourse trundles under the foundations. My moment of fortune nearly came when I got talking to the gentleman who owns New Leaf bookshop at West Dulwich station. He turned out to be harbouring an very well-informed local geologist and historian, who told me about a hole in ground across the road in Belair Park.

Waters collect in a nearby pond (see picture), and flow underground into teh buried River Effra. While building new changing rooms for the park, contractors had dug into what seemed to be the underground Effra tributary, contained in a storm drain. As it was the weekend, we tried to get through the site fence for a look, but the contractors had built it with unusual efficiency. I could see the relevant hole in the middle distance, just too far away. So near, so near. However, thanks to the same helpful man, I also have a lead on the Effra flowing through a pub cellar...

Talking walking

2010-09-11T04:09:00.000-07:00

I'm very pleased to have just recorded an interview about London's Lost Rivers with Andrew Stuck, for publication on his excellent Talking Walking website alongside material from the luminaries of the walking world. We took a stroll from the heights of Crystal Palace down to the source of the Effra, in Norwood New Town. As Andrew asked about physical evidence that buried rivers are still there, we were fortuitously passing a large manhole on Hermitage Road - see picture. The loud, rushing coming from beneath cover is the unmistakable sound of the River Effra, heading downhill on its journey towards the Thames at Vauxhall.

Owl Service

2010-07-16T01:22:00.000-07:00

The new Strata tower in Elephant and Castle looms over the buried river Neckinger beneath Newington Butts, although it doesn't know it. The stripy behemoth also looms over most of south London and lurks in the background of all sorts of self-effacing views. It's an unpleasant building, substituting sympathy for the area with three pointless wind turbines and 'random' patterning that looked dated before it was finished. However, my wife has neutered Strata's malign presence in one fell swoop. As she points out, it looks just like a cartoon owl of the kind found in Czech children's tv animations of the 70s. Here it is lurking owlishly behind Southwark Cathedral, impossible to take it seriously anymore.

Trouble in West Two

2010-06-27T03:34:00.001-07:00

Thanks to the bibliography in Cathi Unsworth's Bad Penny Blues, I was lucky enough to track down Trouble in West Two by Kevin Fitzgerald. For 1950s Bayswater colour, which I need in my quest for the soul of the Westbourne river, it's unsurpassed. Kicking off in the saloon bar of The Case is Altered pub, it's about a man called Harrison. Trouble is his business. There are thrills and thuggery, double-dealing and death, and that's just the back cover.

The Bayswater setting is a transitional place of temporary members clubs, racing majors, and gang loyalties behind a fragile facade that just about manages to remain genteel. So far I've failed to find any real trace of the post-war Bayswater, other than perhaps a certain something in the air. But I'd love to know more about Fitzgerald, who also wrote Kill Him Gently, Nurse, which really is the definition of a promising title.

R. Dale

2010-04-09T06:37:00.000-07:00

On the route of the Westbourne, which runs through Maida Vale under Shirland Road to the Regent's Canal, is this curious and tragic shop. It seems to be closed, which makes me fear the worst, but it still bears the signs of an eccentric campaign against something or other. The cryptic announcement above the door, in best Bob and Roberta Smith lettering, is accompanied by another which helpfully explains that "R.Dale is not a deaf-mute. He has had a stroke." A printed notice in the window has a picture of an elderly couple embracing, and says "The Scandal of a Government Dept mistake. Old disabled couple destroyed! Mr & Mrs Dale now fighting for Justice. Please support us." And an email address I haven't dared contact yet.

It's all tantalising and extremely unhelpful, leaving passers-by none the wiser. However, I wish the Dales all the best. Anyone know what's going on here?

Drained

2010-04-02T02:01:00.000-07:00

While searching for underground rivers, I often find myself looking down drain covers in the hope of spotting fast flowing water. But the drain covers themselves are almost as good, as are London's amazing range of elaborate coal hole covers. I've started photographing them as I go, and my favourite so far has to be the flower coal hole above. What a lot of attention to give to the design of something ignored by almost everyone.

I blame the Boyle Family for this. Their perfect recreations of randomly selected pieces of ground, including this drain cover, are irresistible.

The transatlantic drainspotters also give good drain. And this Boston site goes beyond drains to stains, potholes and asphalt.

Two steps on the water

2010-03-31T07:25:00.001-07:00

Now on the track of the Westbourne, I've been spending the last three days walking its supposed course and trying to find the physical evidence. And surprisingly, it isn't difficult. Through the streets of Hampstead and Kilburn there was no mistaking the rush of water under a series of drain covers. In Kilburn someone has even, helpfully but mysteriously, built a non-descripit brick wall on Springfield Lane which has two blank arches marking the spot where the Westbourne under the road. Many thanks, thoughtful brick-layer.

Caught on camera

2010-03-22T02:21:00.000-07:00

No, the Fleet Walk wasn't a mere hallucination fed by the marsh agues of the river valley. It really happened. There are photos to prove it.

A Fleet pilgrimage

2010-03-21T04:26:00.001-07:00

I always thought there was no better fun to be had than a London walk, ideally on the trail of something obscure and obscured, tracing patterns in the streets purely for entertainment. Well it turns out there is: the same thing, but with lots of other people. I had a great time yesterday, leading a Fleet walk that recreated the missing river with a surge of people, a snaking line of enthusiasts pouring along the Fleet valley. And such interesting people too. It's very satisfying to lock onto the endless stories that floating on the surface of the river and wash up on its banks.

Best bits from conversations en route: damp houses and stone-strewed gardens on the course of the buried Fleet; the corpse of headless rabbi in Camden; Banksy v King Robbo on the Regent's Canal; the significance of the rust on Roberto Calvi's shoes, and why he was probably choloroformed.

I'd love to know more. If there's anything you want to tell me about the river and the route we took yesterday - Kentish Town, Regent's Canal, Royal College St, Old St Pancras Church, King's Cross, St Chad's Place, Mount Pleasant, Ray Street, Clerkenwell, Saffron Hill, Holborn Viaduct, Ludgate Circus, Blackfriars - please do add it to the comments.

Strange brew

2010-03-19T01:51:00.000-07:00

I'm looking forward to attempting to lead 40 hardy urban explorers from Kentish Town to Blackfriars on Saturday, tracking the former-course of the lower reaches of the Fleet and, I can exclusively reveal, spotting it under no fewer than three drain covers. The Fleet walk is part of Obscura Day, a global series of odd events organised by the very nice people who run Atlas Obscura, a highly compelling handy alternative travel guide full of delightful strangeness. It's the best thing since the Shell Guide to Curious Britain, the reference book of choice for people whose idea of a good day out involves sewer gas lamps and misshapen trees i.e. me.

The walk attracted the interest of a freelance tv crew, which pleased but rather surprised me. All became clear when they started asking what the lighting is like in the tunnels, and whether they needed wellies. Sorry guys: although the idea of sneaking 40 people down a manhole cover in the Kentish Town Road does appeal to me, we're staying strictly above ground.

Lost, or just mislaid?

2010-03-12T01:53:00.000-08:00

London is a city built on layers: London clay, Gault clay, Bagshot sands, Thames gravel, North Downs chalk and water packed under the streets and sealed in with tarmac and stone. The water's the bit that really interests me - flowing unsuspected through in tunnels and sewers, culverts and drains.

Londoners see themselves as living in a one river town, but the Thames isn't the half of it. Its tributaries determined London's villages and suburbs, the missing explanation for landscape features and development patterns that now seem arbitrary and impossible to decode. Hills mean rivers; valleys mean rivers; that surprisingly steep slope at the east end of Fleet Street is a river bank; the weird dip where Piccadilly passes Green Park is a stream bed.

When we no longer needed the rivers, we buried them - the Fleet, the Walbrook, the Tyburn, the Westbourne, the Effra, the Neckinger, to name just a few - along with everything they had to say about the London they had seen. That's why I'm writing a book of walks along the course of lost and mislaid rivers, looking at what they can tell us about our city and its past. London's Lost Rivers: A Walker's Guide will be published by Strange Attractor Press in Spring 2011.