After proposing the return of our Routemaster, Boris Johnson has another equally desirable whim for London. The new mayor’s advisors want to make the capital more liveable by unearthing it’s lost rivers.
There are over a dozen waterways other then the Thames running through London, most of them however, have been transformed into little more than sewers. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Fleet which rises in Hamstead, flows though Kings Cross and gave its name to the street which was built over it. Another fairly well known is The Tyburn, running from South Hampstead, through St James’s Park to Vauxhall, this leant its name to the ‘Tyburn Tree’ gallows which originally stood by the river’s banks. Another Hampstead river is the Westbourne which flowed through Kilburn, become the Bayswater rivulet then the original Serpentine in Hyde Park before running under the now lost Knightsbridge which gave it’s name to the area. These days the Serpentine is fed by water from the Thames instead and the only sign of the Westbourne that can easily be seen is a large iron pipe running over the platforms in Sloane Square Underground Station.
Less famous in our time but of great importance to the Romans is Walbrook which runs from Finsbury, then under the London Wall, emerging into the Thames beneath Cannon Street station.
South of the city, the Effra was converted into a major sewer by Sir Joseph Bazalgette, it originates by Crystal Palace flowing through Brixton to meet the Thames near Vauxhall. Lost underground for their entire run are the Falconbrook from Balham to Battersea, the Neickinger from Southwark to Shad Thames. Two rivers ‘channelised’ but already receiving attention are The Wandle, aboveground for most of it’s run from Waddon and the subject or restoration plans by Wandsworth Borough Council; and the Quaggy in Greenwich and Lewisham , subject to re-naturalisation plans since 1990, including restoration in Lewisham town centre.
One of the mayor’s advisors has even touted the possibility of turning Fleet Street into a waterway in the style of a Venetian canal.
In addition to the rivers, plans first touted by Ken Livingston to link Primrose Hill to Trafalgar Square with a tree lines promenade have been repeated by the new mayor’s advisor Sir Stimon Milton. The scheme would see Portland Place and Regent Street turned into something resembling Barcelona’s Las Ramblas.
Further reading:
- The story of London’s neglected waterways can be read in N.J. Barton’s The Lost Rivers of London: A Study of Their Effects Upon London and Londoners, and the Effects of London and Londoners on Them.
