London's little rivers and streams

[_pH_]

The Duke of Northumberland's River runs parallel to the Longford River for much of its length but then diverts somewhere near Bedfont to feed the ornamental lakes in Syon Park (home to said Duke).

And I think that by an accident of history, having been municipalised by the London County Council and the GLC, the Duke's river is now administered by the National Rivers Authority, whereas as the water supply to part of the royal estate, the Longford River is still run by the Royal Parks Agency.

yeah that's it

 

[lang rabbie]

The river that flows into the lagoon around Venice is called the Brenta, one of the few connections between the Park Royal-Greenford area and the pearl of the Adriatic.

I guess they were both named by the Normans who were in both places at about the same time?

Intriguing theory, but as Brentford has been a place name since the 700s CE (formerly Breguntford) isn't the name Brent generally thought to be something Celtic [although there seems to have been a row for the last two centuries over whether it relates to the goddess Brigant or something else]

 

[TopCat]

Is it the Graveney that goes through Thornton Heath?

 

[_pH_]

Beverley Brook

that ones nice, esp. where it goes through Richmond Park

 

[ViolentPanda]

The Wandle, rises in the the North Downs near Waddon then heads through Carshalton, Mitcham, Beddington, Wimbledon (behind the away end at Plough Lane) before meeting the Thames at Wandsworth (Youngs used to draw the water used for brewing from the Wandle). Used to be a shopping trolley dumping ground but has now been cleaned up and has a varied aquatic life.

Youngs used an artesian well drawing groundwater, not the Wandle!

Twas one of the reasons they moved. They'd reached the limits of daily extraction and couldn't expand their brewing operation any further at the Wandsworth brewery.

 

[lang rabbie]

Youngs used an artesian well drawing groundwater, not the Wandle!

Twas one of the reasons they moved. They'd reached the limits of daily extraction and couldn't expand their brewing operation any further at the Wandsworth brewery.

I thought Youngs had been using tap water for the last 30 years + because of the contamination of ground water.

 

[toblerone3]

I can thoroughly recommend the Groundwater Diaries which is an eccentric account of pub crawls along the routes of London's underground rivers.

http://thesmoke.net/gd/

The Groundwater Diaries is a heavily illustrated London travel book in which I use old maps, hallucinogenic high strength lager, dream analysis and an old coat hanger to help me find the city's lost streams. Over the course of a year I walked the routes of many of these buried tributaries of the Thames, drew some sketches and read history books. The book covers the great themes of existence - punk, football, feminism, beer, nurses, politics, free jazz, jellied eels, Dickens, offal, capitalism, sex and death

 

[co-op]

Same as that.

My homie, bredren etc.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Ah! Pitshanger Park....in the 1960s the local kids has specific names for part of the river; did you two? There was a shallow bit with a spit of gravel...King's Island. My favourite bit.

 

[hiccup]

My homie, bredren etc.

Ealing cru!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Well, I haven't lived there for 34 years, but I spent my childhood and teenage years there.

 

[co-op]

Gad! Mrs Magpie, there's a good chance we overlapped in our Pitshanger Park eras - my parents moved into the area in about 1966 when I was 3 and we went down there a lot for the next 10-15 years, later on to smoke fags and muck abaht.

I think I know the place you mean on the riverbank - but we called it The Beach. It was bloody polluted in those days compared to now as I recall - lots of petrol swirls in the water. There are fish now - living ones!

We must know some people in common. Ever do a paper-round? That was the big Pitshanger social network in my experience - at Hiscocks (the post office). Lot of rounds, lot of people.

 

[hiccup]

Gad! Mrs Magpie, there's a good chance we overlapped in our Pitshanger Park eras - my parents moved into the area in about 1966 when I was 3 and we went down there a lot for the next 10-15 years, later on to smoke fags and muck abaht.

I think I know the place you mean on the riverbank - but we called it The Beach. It was bloody polluted in those days compared to now as I recall - lots of petrol swirls in the water. There are fish now - living ones!

We must know some people in common. Ever do a paper-round? That was the big Pitshanger social network in my experience - at Hiscocks (the post office). Lot of rounds, lot of people.

I know a fair few people who did paper rounds from Balfours/the Post Office (it's now a co-op I think) on Pitshanger lane.

 

[co-op]

I know a fair few people who did paper rounds from Balfours/the Post Office (it's now a co-op I think) on Pitshanger lane.

Balfours! That was it...old age playing tricks with the memory!

I would have done rounds there about 1976-79 - and got to the heady heights of being a marker for a year or so.

Who can I remember - John Ratcliffe was a friend; the Carpendale sisters, Lucy and Helen, Karen Waller or something like that? No other names spring to mind but I haven't seen any of those guys for years.

 

[hiccup]

The folks I knew were there late 80s/early 90s. Keith and Val, who have worked there for years, are still there.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Gad! Mrs Magpie, there's a good chance we overlapped in our Pitshanger Park eras - my parents moved into the area in about 1966 when I was 3 and we went down there a lot for the next 10-15 years, later on to smoke fags and muck abaht.

Ah, you're more of a contemporary of my baby sister then....

 

[co-op]

Ah, you're more of a contemporary of my baby sister then....

Or you of my older sister...

 

[Mrs Magpie]

We went to St Gregory's school.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The River Crane was a big part of my childhood. Spent a lot of time playing in Crane Park.

If you take the Piccadilly line to Heathrow, between Hounslow West and Hatton Cross the train briefly surfaces. This is where the train goes over the Crane cos the earth underneath the river was too boggy to build the tunnel under it

 

[rennie]

The River Crane was a big part of my childhood. Spent a lot of time playing in Crane Park.

If you take the Piccadilly line to Heathrow, between Hounslow West and Hatton Cross the train briefly surfaces. This is where the train goes over the Crane cos the earth underneath the river was too boggy to build the tunnel under it

I've always wondered why it does that!

 

[Blagsta]

I know a fair few people who did paper rounds from Balfours/the Post Office (it's now a co-op I think) on Pitshanger lane.

I did one there. From about 1983 to 1988.

 

[co-op]

We went to St Gregory's school.

Montpelier.

 

[co-op]

I did one there. From about 1983 to 1988.

Ah you just missed out on my benign reign as King of the Markers. Twas an era of growth and prosperity, culture and art. And the occasional extra mag of your choice put in your round <ahem> by mistake, if I liked you enough.

 

[nino_savatte]

Coombe Brook runs through Malden Golf Course and flows into the Beverley near the A3. I'm not sure where it rises but it's possible that its origin is near The Cut in New Malden.

 

[co-op]

Back on brooks; there's a little (nameless?) brook that runs down through south Ealing. I haven't been there for ages but it used to be visible from Little Ealing Lane between the school and another building. I guess it went along Brook Road behind Brentford Football Club at one time.

 

[hiccup]

Back on brooks; there's a little (nameless?) brook that runs down through south Ealing. I haven't been there for ages but it used to be visible from Little Ealing Lane between the school and another building. I guess it went along Brook Road behind Brentford Football Club at one time.

You can still see it, it runs next to the convent. The bit you can see is just a concrete channel though. Not sure where it goes once it's gone under the road though.

 

[Maggot]

There is also the Westbourne in West London and the Effra going down through Brixton from the South Bank.

This runs through Sloane Square tube station. You can see the pipe containing it from the platform.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I thought Youngs had been using tap water for the last 30 years + because of the contamination of ground water.

They were still drawing from their well back when I did "the tour" in 1994, at least according to the tour guide.

 

[ViolentPanda]

This runs through Sloane Square tube station. You can see the pipe containing it from the platform.

As Christopher Fowler seems to mention at least once in every novel he publishes!

 

[ska invita]