Going overground with our rivers...

Ok - we want to bring the river back overground - it has lain underground since it was piped over 200 years ago and we want to enjoy it again...

Surely that's a daft idea? It hasn't be done elsewhere, has it? and it would cost a fortune and to what benefit?

Well, I think it's a superb idea - it's about restoring our proper environment. Everyone agrees that water flow is a calming influence and is a beautiful environmental feature. I have a picture here is the rive flowing down the High Street in Wells, Somerset and it is just so so special - attractive, helpful, not dangerous and manageable.

The Sustainability Task Force in Camden, led by Cllr Alexis Rowell has already explored this possibility and are actually advocating the opening up of the Rivers Fleet and Kilburn. Surely the Kilburn High Road could be so much better for a river running down it and as can be seen in the picture it adds to the street scene and does not intrude.

So if you go to the Camden website link - Pages 9-14 deal with this particular issue and opportunity - it's seriously interesting reading and worth while.
http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/environment/green-events-and-initiatives/sustainability-task-force/task-force-reports/

What do you think? Who's up for a walk of the overground flow of the Fleet and the Kilburn Rivers so we can explore whether bringing them back into visibility is a runner.. (excuse the pun!).

Ed Fordham

The Fleet river floweth by...

A brilliantly useful comment from a reader brings this map: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/284-londons-lost-rivers/

and comes at a time when I'm told that the now Jubilee Line Underground was going to be the Fleet Line on the basis that it was going to go through Fleet Street and reflected something of the line of the Fleet River...

Sounds convincing, but any confirmations out there?

Ed Fordham

Where does the river flow?

It's not the most obvious shot of a river but that's exactly what it is - the location of the river in Kilburn.

I remains slightly unclear as to the definition of river versus tributary and whether it is the Kilbourne river, the Westbourne or a feeder from or to the Fleet.

What I do know however, if that if you stand above this set of drains at the bottom of West End Lane but the old Bird in Hand Pub you can hear the river flowing beneath you.

I'm told that this is the river that feeds the Serpentine eventually and that in fact you can later 'see' the river as it crosses a major tube station in a metal pipe south of here in Kilburn. But is opening up our waterways something we should be considering - it's certainly been a thread brought up in sustainability discussions and it sounds an attractive notion but is it in any way possible now they have lain underground for so long?