Something lurks hidden but constantly moving just below the surface of streets across London.
Rumbling under Westminster Abbey and flowing beneath the stampeding feet of Covent Garden’s tourists, these are London’s subterranean rivers.
Dozens of rivers run under the capital.
Unseen, they lay encased under concrete paving stones.
Yet once they flourished at surface level. Used for industry, sustenance and pleasure, these rivers were once the life blood of London, the capital’s capillaries.
They were used for the transportation of goods, people and, less palatably, as sewage depositories.
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(Image: Museum of London)
In other instances, the rivers acted as bathing spots and in our once much harsher winters, as skating rinks.
A plaque at St Pancras Old Church even depicts people bathing at the banks of the River Fleet in 1827, an image which is somewhat demanding to visualise at the now painfully congested A501.
But then came the 1858 Great Stink, when a summer heatwave exacerbated the smell of the untreated waste in the capital’s waterways.
The rivers were buried, entombed in a new Victorian sewage system.
(Image: Museum of London)
Now the Museum of London Docklands is unearthing our hidden rivers.
Its immersive exhibition is both a homage and historical insight into the Thames tributaries.
The free exhibition explores the Effra, Tyburn, Westbourne, Necklinger and Fleet.
(Image: Museum of London)
The waterways continue to secretly mould our city.
The Oval cricket ground was built and shaped around the curve of the River Effra.
Even its seating banks were built using soil excavated when the river was covered.
The River Westbourne meanwhile divides Kensington and Chelsea from Westminster, with each side of its bank forming borough lines.
(Image: Museum of London)
The exciting news is that the rivers are not entirely lost to us.
There remain faint signs, what the Museum of London Docklands has called “ghostly traces” of the tributaries.
A sloping road, the sound of gushing under a manhole cover, or a “stink pipe” up the side of a building, all signify a hidden river.
Some still sporadically peep above the surface. The River Fleet for example can be seen flowing into the Hampstead and Highgate Heath ponds.
Then there’s the River Peck which emerges in Peckham Rye Park’s garden.
The museum is also offering “secret river walks” allowing you to traverse their path with a helpful guide.
Perhaps a weekend trip to meander the Neckinger.
You will stroll past a jam factory, royal abbey and an 18th century pleasure garden until the river meets the Thames at the Bermondsey slum that Charles Dickens made famous, Jacob’s Island. To find out more about the walks click here.
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Some of London’s hidden rivers you’ve probably never heard of
1. Bollo Brook – this river goes underground close to Ealing Common Tube station and then closely follows the course of the District Line to Acton Town station and on to Bollo Lane
2. Stamford Brook – found in the Ravenscourt Park area, this river crosses King Street in Hammersmith before flowing into the Thames
3. Counters Creek – this river originates in Kensal Green and flows south through North Kensington and Earls Court, before passing Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge ground
4. River Westbourne – coming from streams in Hampstead Heath it then joins the Kilbourne River and flows through Hyde Park, Sloane Square and into the Thames near Chelsea Bridge
5. River Tyburn – this one also originates in Hampstead, following a course through Regent’s Park, past Buckingham Palace and flowing into the Thames by Vauxhall Bridge
6. River Fleet – also starting in Hampstead Heath, this is the river that feeds the Hampstead and Highgate ponds. It continues into Camden Town and under King’s Cross, joining the Thames at Blackfriars Bridge
7. River Walbrook – from Finsbury Circus this flows through the City of London, under the Bank of England and joins the Thames at the Southwark and Cannon Street bridges
8. Black Ditch – this goes through Bethnal Green to Stepney and joins the Thames at Dunbar Wharf in Limehouse
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9. Hackney Brook – flowing past where Arsenal’s old Highbury football stadium used to be it then goes through Clissold Park and Stoke Newington’s Abney Park Cemetery, before passing through Hackney and Homerton and finally meeting the River Lea at Old Ford Lock
10. Falcon Brook – this goes from Wandsworth Common, past Clapham Junction station and enters the Thames at Battersea
11. River Effra – this river passes under Half Moon Lane in Herne Hill and flows towards Brixton. It continues on to Kennington and then enters the Thames by Vauxhall Bridge
12. River Neckinger – this flows rom St Saviour’s Dock, past Bermondsey Abbey, through Elephant and Castle and on to the site of the Imperial War Museum
13. Earls Sluice – this goes from Ruskin Park through Camberwell, down past Burgess Park and South Bermondsey station. It then passes Millwall’s FC’s New Den and joins the Thames at Greenland Dock in Deptford
14. River Peck – a tributary to the Earl’s Sluice, this river passes between Peckham Rye and Honor Oak Hill and is drained into the Sluice near Ilderton Road
15. River Quaggy – this river passes through the south east London boroughs of Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham
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