Can you help trace the flow of the troubled waters?

Trapped underground, they remain doomed to wander the labyrinth tunnels and pipes, occasionally seeping through the surface of the streets that strain to keep them quiet. Yet despite being submerged underneath concrete, the lost rivers of London are very much alive.

Until the tide of opinion turned against them, the rivers of London - tributaries of water running from the Thames - once played vital role in London’s development. The rivers not only dictated the course of London roads, but also were an important factor in determining industrial location and in the defining London’s boundaries. Some also served a more sinister purpose - a spot for the dumping of bodies. Rumour has it that many corpses were dropped in the most famous of the lost rivers, The Fleet.

The Fleet

Of the numerous lost rivers dotted around the capital most reside in North London. The Fleet is by far the largest, a fact verified by its marking on maps. Travelling three and a half miles from Hampstead-Highgate to the Thames at Blackfriars, it ran underneath Regent’s Canal and between Pancras Way and College Street onward to its final destination, Farringdon St, Clerkenwell. A board on the entrance railings of Old St Pancras Church commemorates its trajectory through Kings Cross.

The Westbourne

Rivalling the Fleet in size, the Westbourne rose on the west side of Hampstead to Kilburn and Hyde Park, through Knightsbridge and into the Thames. The Westbourne along with Stamford Brook suffered a similar fate as the Fleet and at the end of the nineteenth century was condemned to a life as a sewer. Another hidden river is the Tyburn, from Shepherds Well in Hampstead through Swiss Cottage to Regent’s Park under Piccadilly and towards Buckingham Palace – but where it flowed afterwards is anyone’s guess. Perhaps the river ran towards Westminster and divided to form the island on which the Abbey stands? Or perhaps it ran towards the Thames near Vauxhall Bridge?

Ghosts of the river

The rivers still have an influence on Londoners, whether it’s through the telltale signs of dampness or flooding or the smells emanating from burst sewers. It has been said that if you looked down the plugholes of the baths in the houses of Fleet Road, Hampstead, you'll see the Fleet river flowing beneath or that as a result of cellar flooding it was impossible to leave shoes outside without them getting wet. Have you heard similar tales or is it simply a load of old cobblers?

Spookily it has been suggested that ghosts occupied houses close to water mains or disused drains. Could they be the unfortunate victims of murder for whom the river was their final resting place?

Do you know the whereabouts of any lost London rivers? Are they truly lost or merely hidden from view? Let us know and get the conversation flowing!