Fleet River
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River Fleet - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
River Fleet - Wikipedia • en.wikipedia.org
From Museum of London: Blue Badge Guide Julie Chandler in Part 1 of our journey that sees us at St Pancras Old Church where the Fleet once flowed alongside.
The River Fleet is the largest of London's subterranean rivers, all of which today contain foul water for treatment. Its headwaters are two streams on Hampstead Heath, each of which was dammed into a series of ponds—the Hampstead Ponds and the Highgate Ponds—in the 18th century. At the southern edge of Hampstead Heath these descend underground as sewers and join in Camden Town. The waters flow 4 mi (6 km) from the ponds, having as combined sewers taken on foul water, in the Victorian economic but grandiose scheme designed by Joseph Bazelgette to be conveyed by very large sewers to be treated at Beckton Sewage Treatment Works. (Wikipedia)
Clerkenwell 101
2 The Clerks’ Well, and many others, was supplied by the River Fleet which flowed through this area. The River Fleet originates at the ponds at Highgate and Hampstead. From there it flows down through Camden and Kings Cross and joins the Thames at Blackfriars. This abundant supply of water played a vital role in the formation and development of Clerkenwell. It was key to the establishment of religious foundations in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries which shaped economic activities and settlement patterns.
3 The Fleet was often referred to as the ‘River of Wells’ because of the number of fresh water springs that erupted along its course. The waters were said to have healing qualities and some were developed into spas, bathing institutions, and pleasure gardens, the most famous being Sadler’s Wells. Several street names in the area, such as Great Bath Street, Cold Bath Square, Cold Bath Fields, Spa Fields take their names from these establishments.
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6 The River Fleet still flows, but is much smaller. Today it runs underground and can be heard through a drain grill in front of the The Coach pub on Ray Street. Obviously boats no longer sail on it, as they did back in Roman times.
Part 2 of #WednesdayWalks London's Lost Rivers, the Fleet sees us at The Coach pub in Clerkenwell, which once upon a time was called the Coach and Horses pub. Located in an area that used to be known as Hockley-in-the-hole in the 18th and 19th centuries (an area known for its dodgy dealings), the Coach and Horses pub used to conduct all sorts of illegal fights. But what is super special about this pub, is the man-hole near it where you can hear the river Fleet running beneath the streets.
Our penultimate stop along the river Fleet is the Holborn Viaduct, which was built in the 1860s and costed £2.5 million (over £200 million today) to construct. Ahead of the Viaduct being built, the river Fleet would have run through it on its way into the Thames.
On the viaduct you'll see a statue of Sir William Walworth, the Lord Mayor of London in 1381 during the Peasants Revolt. King Richard II and Sir William Walworth famously met the rebels of the Peasants' Revolt on the 'Smooth Field' or Smithfield as we now call it, near to where the museum's future home will be in West Smithfield. #WednesdayWalks
Our final destination along the Fleet is the Thames, more specifically the banks of the Thames by Blackfriars Pier. Though it's difficult to see in our video due to the high tide, the river Fleet emerges into the Thames between the columns of the old Blackfriars Railway Bridge from 1800s and the present day road bridge #WednesdayWalks
The Lost River Fleet: A Self-Guided Walk And Map
Self guided walk at Living London History
London has many ‘lost’ rivers, that have played a huge role in defining the landscape of the city: the hills, the valleys, the shapes of roads. They are now predominantly buried in pipes under the streets of modern London. The city’s most famous lost river is the River Fleet
https://youtu.be/TVlM83wyh_s
A walk along London’s most famous, notorious and mysterious lost river - The River Fleet. Starting at Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath we pass the Hampstead tumulus on the way to one of the two sources of the Fleet at the Vale of Health. We follow the Fleet as it gurgles across the Heath feeding the Hampstead Ponds. The other source of the Fleet rises in Ken Wood before feeding the Highgate Ponds and meandering through Dartmouth Park and Tufnell Park to Kentish Town.
The Fleet departs the Heath at South End Green and we trace the course along Fleet Road to Gospel Oak and Anglers Lane in Kentish Town. The river flows beneath Kentish Town Road, the two branches combining near Quinn's Pub, before it crosses Camden Road. In Lyme Street we get our first sighting of the Fleet beneath ground, or rather a smell wafting up through the street iron.
The river continues more of less along the line of Pancras Road and past St. Pancras Old Church, a location rich with stories and the site of Roman remains that some claim could be one of the oldest places of Christian worship in the world. The course of the river takes us past Kings Cross Station and into St. Chad's Place where the shape of the river is visible.
Our River Fleet walk leads us along Kings Cross Road to the site of Bagnigge Wells, a notorious 17th and 18th Century pleasure garden which grew up around a spring beside the Fleet.
We turn into Cubitt Street and then into Phoenix Place, as the Fleet beckons us into Warner Street where we can clearly see and hear the river beneath the street irons. "One writer, Mr J.G Waller points out that the holes that gave the Saxon name to the Holebourne are still marked by the sites of Hockley-in-the-hole now Ray Street Clerkenwell-and Black Mary's Hole, Bagnigge Wells."
Springs, Streams and Spas of London History and Associations Alfred Stanley Foord, 1910
The final street of the River Fleet walk goes along Farringdon Road, with a detour into Farringdon Lane to visit the site of the Clerks Well, and to the famous One Tun pub in Saffron Hill that features in Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
The Fleet makes its confluence with the Thames at Blackfriars Bridge where this walk ends.