The Tyburn is a stream in London, which runs underground from South Hampstead through St. James's Park to meet the River Thames at Pimlico near Vauxhall Bridge. It is not to be confused with the Tyburn Brook which is a tributary of the River Westbourne.
Before it was covered over, the Tyburn arose from the confluence of two tributary streams from the hills of Hampstead. At what is now St. James's Park, it split into three branches, two of which formed Thorney Island on which Westminster Abbey was built. The Tyburn is now completely enclosed and flows through underground conduits for its entire length, including one underneath Buckingham Palace. Marylebone Lane (W1) follows the course of the Tyburn on what was its left bank through Marylebone village.
From its source at the Shepherd's Well near Fitzjohns Avenue in Hampstead it flowed south through Swiss Cottage down to Regent's Park. In the park, in contrast to the River Fleet, another underground river, the Tyburn is carried in an aqueduct over the Regent's Canal.[1]
The Tyburn gave its name to the village of Tyburn, originally a manor of Marylebone, which was recorded in Domesday Book and which stood approximately at the west end of what is now Oxford Street. It also gave its name to the predecessors of Oxford Street and Park Lane, which were formerly called Tyburn Road and Tyburn Lane respectively.
An antique shop near the junction of Bond Street and Oxford Street claims that a body of water which can be seen in an open conduit in the basement of its premises is part of the Tyburn.[2] That the stream is clean or flows through the basement of the shop is unlikely since the stream is now connected into the London sewerage system.[3][4]
| Next confluence upstream | River Thames | Next confluence downstream |
| Falconbrook (south) | Tyburn (stream) | River Effra (south) |