The subterranean or underground rivers of London are the tributaries of the River Thames and River Lea that were built over during the growth of the metropolis of London. Since it is difficult to stop water from flowing downhill, the rivers now flow through underground culverts.[1]
Many London localities started their existence as small villages along these rivers, and their place names reflect their origin. In recent years, parts of some London rivers have been restored to their previous above-ground state, and in some cases fish have been reintroduced. In June 2008 outline plans to reinstate some underground rivers were published by the office of Mayor of London,[2] and in January 2009 a partnership between the Environment Agency, Natural England and the Greater London Authority set out a strategy for putting this into effect by creating the River Restoration Centre.[3][4]
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River Thames – north bank from east to west:
River Thames – south bank:
River Lea:
An article on London's Lost Rivers[5][6] mentions a Langbourne as running along Fenchurch Street, Lombard Street, and Sherbourn Lane, but gives no further details. This route looks unlikely, running parallel with, but in the opposite direction to, the Thames. Whatever it was, it has given its name to the Langbourn ward of the City of London. One possibility is that it was a medieval euphemism for the open sewers that ran along these streets.
The article also mentions a St Clement’s (as in the Oranges and Lemons song) stream. This would presumably be in Clement's Lane, which runs south from Lombard Street. This may have been another open sewer. Likewise for the Oldbourne (or Holbourne) cited as alternative names for the Fleet.
On the south bank the next river upstream from the Effra is the Falconbrook, also underground. The next river is the Wandle, which is not subterranean. To quote from an article formerly on the London Borough of Sutton website: "Today most of London’s Thames tributaries flow underground or are imprisoned in concrete. The Wandle remains one of the few that are accessible for most of its length." The River Brent is also above ground for most of its course.
The subterranean rivers of London are mentioned in several novels, including Thrones, Dominations (by Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh), where a character remarks "You can bury them deep under, sir; you can bind them in tunnels, ... but in the end where a river has been, a river will always be."[7]
One story arc of the comic book Hellblazer features the rivers as a major plot point.
A London subterranean river, used as a sewer, is visited briefly in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. Croup and Vandemar, the story's two major antagonists, dump the body of the Marquis de Carabas in the river, and lament on how the people above will never get to see the craftsmanship of the tunnel that was built over it.[8]
The River Tyburn makes an appearance in Ironhand, the second book of the Stoneheart trilogy, by Charlie Fletcher.
The Bryant and May series of mystery novels by Christopher Fowler all deal with London history and trivia. In particular, The Water Room includes a mystery which is directly linked to the paths of London's underground rivers, culminating in a chase through the sewers and ending in a giant underground chamber, hidden since Victorian times, and filled with illegal immigrants.
These rivers play an important role in The Tiger in the Well, the last Sally Lockhart mystery in Philip Pullman's trilogy. In Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch a number of these rivers are personified as river deities of varied importance.
Daniel Defoe mentions sufferers drowning themselves "in the river which runs from the marshes by Hackney, which we generally called Ware River, or Hackney River" in his novel A Journal of the Plague Year.
The construction of the London Sewer System, which utilizes many of the lost rivers, was central to the 2006 Anne Perry novel, Dark Assassin. This is a novel in Perry's series featuring detective William Monk.[9]
