Bobby Seal
'Which brings me to the haunting complexity of London’s buried rivers. They’re not lost, not at all. Just because you can’t see a thing, as Ed Dorn points out, doesn’t mean that it’s not there. The rivers continue, hidden and culverted as they might be, to flow through our dreams, fixing the compass of our moods and movements.'
Iain Sinclair – Swimming to Heaven: The Lost Rivers of London.
#IainSinclair #London #RiverFleet #LostRivers
Mar 9, 2023 at 11:34amWeb
Show threadPassed WonderMar 9, 2023
@BobbySeal
And you can still see them, walk them, even hear them. From the Fleet's many lakes and trickles starting on Hampstead Heath and occasionally heard gurgling beneath drains a ways beyond, to the streets that bear names remembering it - Fleet Street itself and the Hol-bourne. And the great carved valley of Farringdon road is a mark of what once flowed through.
All that without having to visit the sewers (as fascinating as that would be!)
Show threadjfwMar 9, 2023

@passedwonder @BobbySeal

I used to take the bus down Kentish Town Road, along the culverted Fleet and past the Jolly Anglers pub at the end of Anglers Lane. I wonder when the river was fished there for the last time.

Show threadSimon BlackbournMar 12, 2023
@jfw @passedwonder @BobbySeal The Effra is my favourite, it runs beneath what is now Brixton Rd. Friends of mine formed the 'Effra Redevelopment Agency' back in the early 90s to highlight the hidden rivers of London, successfully duping the press into thinking it was a real project.
Show threadjfwMar 12, 2023

@simonblackbourn @passedwonder @BobbySeal

This is excellent. We should cherish all lost rivers. I love the Effra Redevelopment Agency.

In Gwynedd we have Afon Adda, culverted beneath Bangor, and Cadnant, which flows beneath Caernarfon.