Beverley Brook is a minor English urban river about 14.3 km long located in south-west London. It rises at Cuddington Recreation Park in Worcester Park, flows through Motspur Park, New Malden, Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park and Barnes. It then joins the River Thames near Putney Bridge at Barn Elms.[1]
Its basin has a total catchment area of 64 square kilometres.[2]
The name is derived from the former presence in the river of the European Beaver (Castor fiber),[3] a species extinct in Britain since the sixteenth century.
A tributary, the Pyl Brook, flows from Sutton through Lower Morden to join it at Beverley Park in New Malden.[1]
For many years in the twentieth century it was fed by poorly treated sewage from a sewerage works in Green Lane, Worcester Park. Since the introduction of improved treatment methods in 1998 the range of wildlife species in the river has steadily increased.[1]
Both brooks are on the Environment Agency's watch list of rivers susceptible to flooding.
In, for example, Wimbledon Common, Beverley Brook has banks reinforced with wooden ‘toe-boarding’, which prevents use by water voles.[4]
Next confluence upstream | River Thames | Next confluence downstream |
Stamford Brook (north) | Beverley Brook | River Wandle (south) |