The Thames has more than 50 tributaries between source and sea, some twenty one are on the tidal Thames. Of these two thirds are partially or wholly lost, buried beneath houses and streets, channelled away in underground tunnels, their flow diverted away by the sewer system. London lost most of it’s’ rivers in less than 100 years, testament to the wave of change that transformed it a city of 650 000 in 1750 to 8.6 million, a peak in 1939

The lost Thames tributaries are London’s veins and arteries. They gave the first settlements purchase in locations where water and power could more easily be accessed than from the surging, tidal Thames. These rivers played crucial roles in the establishment and growth of the city, and they took much with them when they disappeared.
The Thames tributaries provided fresh water for Londoners and their animals, transported goods, powered mills and factories that ground, pummelled, chopped mashed, ground and stretched the supplies for London. London, in return, dumped everything it did not need in its’ rivers, from sewage to carcasses, household goods and the relics of old gods, the rivers turned and spread disease until London could stand no more, and the population buried those rivers.
Those lost river Landscapes hold multiple keys to the past present and future, and this winter, constrained by daylight and weather, and the dullness of a winter Sunday, we set out to explore them.
Inspired by a ride by Barry Mason to the sources of The Quaggy and The Thames, together with the works of Tom Bolton, a series of 8 rides between November 2011 and March 2012 that set out to explore those rivers, no more than 20 miles, a slow explore with copious useless anecdotes, do bring a notebook…

The Lost Rivers of London return in 2012 with The Neckinger and The Walbrook, arguably not rivers at all, perhaps just tidal ditches swept by the Thames, remembered today as they mark the boundary between two boroughs and two City wards.

We follow the route of the Neckinger through the marshy swamps, and having paid homage the Havelock Ellis on our Effra ride, we stop on the site of the School for the Indignant Blind, to remember the freaks of the “show of Bethlehem” and the inmates of the Lock Hospital, while we look at what the Elephants Backside replaced.
We recall how William Blake saw Angels on our Peck expedition, and we visit the home from where he was chased by scaly monsters, imagine how Canute invaded in 1016, remember Chaplin and Faraday, and wonder why Joanna packed a box that requires 24 bishops to open it, and remains sealed to this day.
With Broom men and Mumpers we visit a Roman Temple, a medieval abbey, look at the 18th and 19th Century food, car & railway industry and its’ legacy today, question what happened to the siege of Gibraltar.
We meet the Thames again at Folly Ditch, where Bill Sykes fell to his death in 1837 while we nibble a Cream Cracker as Pirates hang.

Our Walbrook expedition takes us from Knights, Templar’s and holy grails to first aiders and London’s’ original Theatre land and to where Thomas Hood was taught by the Misses Hogflesh.
We pass the site of Broad Street, that forgotten terminus demolished in 1984 and follow the Walbrook through Broadgate circus and onto marshy Moorfields, which was dry ground until the Romans decided to build a wall around London, a second visit to Bedlam, records exist that record the Walbrook flowing under the Bank of England, although we will have to pass around, along Lothbury, perhaps a tributary, and on to Bank where John Stow records the Langbourne joining the Walbrook and we fly beneath The Grocers Hall and St Mildred Poultry.
The Walbrook then takes us through the thriving heart of the medieval trading city, where we revisit those lost trades that provided so much to modern London and its’ livery companies, and wonder at how the river reappeared briefly in June 1999.
Finally we arrive at Dowgate, once a Steel Yard, where Poulson bribed the Railway and end at Walbrook Wharf where we meet the Thames, and perhaps hitch a lift downstream to mucking…………….

[g-gallery gid=”2797″ random=”0″ watermark=”0”]