Hidden Underground Rivers In London

[nixxipixxi]

The Rivers of London is my favorite book series

[carsonianthegreat]

Technically it is called “daylighting” a river to reopen it. Rewilding is more about ecological restoration broadly.

[MihkelKukk]

This is actually quite common in old Cities, mostly in Europe but probably elsewhere too. If you live in a bigger city in Europe, there's probably a hidden river running somewhere underneath it.

[cakeskin]

They’ve been doing this in Manchester. When a site with a culvert falls out of use rather than building back over it they are opening the river back up. It’s pretty neat.

[jonathananderson]

Well now I want to see a 007 style film of breaking onto the place from the river

[andrewwerner]

In the fall when the leaves on trees are starting to turn orange and yellow the trees sitting atop water closest to the surface will change first. When viewed from the air it makes it very easy to trace hidden streams and other waterways.

[loreman]

The Fleet became a public sewer in Tudor times already. It gave its name to Fleet Street.
When you go up the hill towards St. Paul's, you're going up the east side of the Fleet valley.

[michaelwilliams]

The River Westbourne (another lost London river) flows in a pipe above the platform at Sloane Square Tube Station.

[Soggstermainia]

When I still lived in Essex we had a brook under our street. The road was named after it. The whole property I lived in was built to allow the water to flow below but still look like a normal street above. The water available was so good that back when it was all done the property had an orchard on it originally. We still had to apple trees and a pear tree if memory served me right.

[amandaholt]

The 400yo pub I grew up in has small stream running through the cellar. Unfortunately they knocked down the beautiful pub & built shops & flats on the grounds. 1 slight future problem they might have is that the stream wasn’t marked on any plans & they probably built without making any adjustments for the stream! I see it as their own fault for not allowing a preservation order.

[beholden_to_ducks]

A similar thing happened to some waterways in my hometown here in the US. Though, probably for a different reason. There's a small creek fed by a nearby spring in the town that's now almost entirely buried. Some time in the early history of the town, the locals called it "trash creek" because... well, everyone just threw their trash in it. The town got sick of it and opted to build a 7 mile long culvert to the river where it drained into. The culvert was then buried. I've heard some people say that some houses that were built directly over the culvert had direct access to the stream in their basements. But i can't be 100% sure.

Interestingly enough, no current maps reflect the creeks location.

[dasharvey]

Please do a longer video about London's hidden rivers. Pretty please?

[philroberts]

John Rogers has always been fascinated by the 'lost' rivers of London. Check out his channel, where he walks in various parts of London and (sometimes) elsewhere.

[SportyMabamba]

The Met line regularly floods at Farringdon because one of the buried rivers flows beneath the tracks there 😅

[tacet]

The green bridge crossing the tracks at Slone Square Underground station isn't a bridge, it's an aqueduct and transports river Westborne

[shearnotspear]

The same thing has happened in Tokyo, interestingly enough. There is an interesting project going on at the moment where they are trying to resurface the rivers as part of reclaiming the region’s natural beauty.

[jennymckenzie]

"Are they hidden?" "Yes, I have a map!"

Seriously though love this content you're a gem

[DaveAwesome]

You should reopen all of them, put a green space on either side with a park and running space, then clean up the water. Water is life! Everyone will be so much happier!

[Human-lghb]

Oh my! I’m writing my dissertation on rewilding. Though I live in London I thought about focusing on mainland Europe, but now I might rethink that.

[jubmelahtes]

In terms of dealing with a wetter climate open rivers work a lot better (and cheaper) than other artificial water management infrastructure