River Fleet

Coordinates: 51°30′39″N 0°6′16″W / 51.51083°N 0.10444°W / 51.51083; -0.10444
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about a river underneath London. For other uses, see River Fleet (disambiguation).
"Fleet Ditch" redirects here. For the waterway in Maidenhead, Berkshire, see Maidenhead Waterways.

51°30′39″N 0°6′16″W / 51.51083°N 0.10444°W / 51.51083; -0.10444

Entrance to the Fleet River as it emerges into the Thames, by Samuel Scott, c. 1750
The southern reaches of the Fleet, flowing beneath Holborn Bridge and Fleet Bridge, past Bridewell Palace, and into the Thames, as shown on the "Copperplate" map of London, surveyed between 1553 and 1559

The River Fleet is the largest of

Highgate Ponds—in the 18th century. At the southern edge of Hampstead Heath these descend underground as sewers and join in Camden Town
. The waters flow 4 miles (6 km) from the ponds.

The river gives its name to Fleet Street, the eastern end of which is at what was the crossing over the river known as Fleet Bridge, and is now the site of Ludgate Circus.

Name

The river's name is derived from the

shipping
.

The lower reaches of the river were known as the Holbourne (or Oldbourne), whence Holborn derived its name.[2]

The river gives its name to Fleet Street which runs from Ludgate Circus to Temple Bar at the Strand. In the 1970s, a London Underground tube line was planned to lie under the line of Fleet Street, provisionally named the Fleet line. However, it was renamed the Jubilee line in 1977, and plans for the part of the route through the City of London were subsequently abandoned. An alternative name for the River Fleet was 'Holborn', deriving from the word 'Bourne', cf. 'Burn', meaning 'river' or 'stream'. This gave its name to that part of London.

Course and tributaries

The Fleet passing by St Pancras Old Church

The Fleet rises on Hampstead Heath as two sources, which flow on the surface as the Hampstead Ponds and the Highgate Ponds. They then go underground, pass under Kentish Town, join in Camden Town, and flow onwards towards St Pancras Old Church, which was sited on the river's banks. From there the river passed in a sinuous course which is responsible for the unusual building line adjacent to King's Cross station; the German Gymnasium faced the river banks, and the curve of the Great Northern Hotel follows that of the Fleet, which passes alongside it. King's Cross was originally named Battle Bridge, a corruption of Broad Ford Bridge referring to an older crossing of the Fleet.[3] In turn John Nelson in his The History, Topography, and Antiquities of the Parish of St. Mary Islington of 1811 linked a supposed Roman army camp found under some nearby brick fields with the site of Boudica's final battle, based only on his comparison of the local topography with the scant description of the battlefield supplied by the near-contemporary historian Tacitus.[4] The name was changed in the 19th century to refer to an unpopular statue of George IV erected in 1830 but, although it was replaced after only fifteen years, the name remains.

From there, it heads down King's Cross Road and other streets, including

Farringdon Street. The line of the former river marks the western boundary of Clerkenwell, the eastern boundary of Holborn and a small part of the eastern boundary of St Pancras.[5] In this way it continues to form part of the boundary of the modern London Boroughs of Camden and Islington
.

At Farringdon Street the valley broadens out and straightens to join the Thames beneath Blackfriars Bridge. In the lower reaches, the valley slopes in the surrounding streets which explains the presence of three viaduct bridges (at Holborn Viaduct across Farringdon Street, another over Shoe Lane, and another on Rosebery Avenue where it crosses Warner Street).

Lamb's Conduit

A small tributary flowed west to east to join the Fleet near Mount Pleasant. This was later utilised to feed Lamb's Conduit. The line of the original brook formed Holborn's boundary with St Pancras to the north. The sweeping curve of Roger Street is part of that boundary line.[6]

Fagswell Brook

The Fagswell Brook (also spelled Faggeswell) was a tributary that joined the Fleet from the east and partially formed the northern boundary of the City of London.[7] The brook flowed east to west on a line approximating to Charterhouse Street and Charterhouse Square. In 1603, the historian John Stow described its demise:

Fagges Well, neare unto Smithfield by the Charterhouse, now lately dammed up.[8]

A part of the course close to Charterhouse Square was excavated as part of the Crossrail project.[9]

Today

The mouth of the River Fleet in 2002, appearing as a drainage outlet (obscured in shadow) in the embankment wall beneath Blackfriars Bridge

The Fleet, which is now a sewer that follows its route, can be seen and heard through a grating in Ray Street,

Blackfriars bridge
. (The tunnel exit shown in the picture can be seen much more clearly from directly above.)

The former mayor of London, Boris Johnson, proposed opening short sections of the Fleet and other rivers for ornamental purposes,[11] although the Environment Agency – which manages the project – is pessimistic that the Fleet can be among those uncovered.[12]

History

In

tidal mill in the world.[13]
The river secured the western flank of the Roman City.

Vector map of Londinium in 400 AD
Londinium in the year 400 showing the Fleet to its west. The tributary Fagswell Brook is shown running from east to west.

In

wells were built along its banks, and some on springs (Bagnigge Wells, Clerkenwell) and St Bride's Well, were reputed to have healing qualities; in the 13th century, the river was called River of Wells.[14] The small lane at the south-west end of New Bridge Street is called Watergate because it was the river entrance to Bridewell Palace
.

As London grew, the river became increasingly a

Dunciad, "To where Fleet-ditch with disemboguing streams / Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames / The king of dykes! than whom no sluice of mud / with deeper sable blots the silver flood".[15]

The Fleet Ditch in 1844

Following the

north-east of England
. (An adjacent narrow road, Seacoal Lane, also existed until the late 20th century, when the present building fronting onto Farringdon Street was built, perhaps suggesting that a new wharf had been built near the old one.)

The upper canal, unpopular and unused, was from 1737 enclosed between Holborn and Ludgate Circus to form the "Fleet Market". The lower part, the section from Ludgate Circus to the Thames, had been covered by 1769 for the opening of the new Blackfriars Bridge and was consequently named "New Bridge Street".

The development of the

Farringdon Street as a highway to the north and the Metropolitan Railway
, while the final upper section of the river was covered when Hampstead was expanded in the 1870s.

The history of the River Fleet was documented by the nineteenth century artist and historian Anthony Crosby. His sketches and notes are held in the Crosby Collection[16] at the London Metropolitan Archives. The archive has been used extensively by researchers, historians and publishers to provide images and contemporary descriptions of the 19th century River Fleet during the period where it was undergoing significant change.

Cultural references

Dunciad
(1728). The bathers are included in satirical allusion to the poor quality of the water.
  • Ben Jonson's poem "On the Famous Voyage" provides a mock-epic account of a journey along the excrement-lined ditch during the early 17th century.[17][18]
  • Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver's Travels) mentions the filth in the Fleet during a storm in a poem of 1710:[19]

    Sweepings from Butchers Stalls, Dung, Guts and Blood,
    Drown'd Puppies, stinking Sprats, all drench'd in Mud,
    Dead Cats and Turnip-Tops come tumbling down the Flood.

  • In
    Dead London.
  • In Neil Gaiman's television serial and novel Neverwhere (1996), the Great Beast of London is said to be a feral boar hog that ran into the Fleet while it was still partially open to the air, and vanished underground into the depths of London Below, growing huge and fat off the sewage.
  • The 2003–2004 Baroque Cycle, Neal Stephenson's three volumes series set in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, has many references to the Fleet Ditch, including discussion of the polluted state of the waterway.
  • The Christopher Fowler crime thriller The Water Room (2004) uses the Fleet as a major setting.
  • In Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (2009), a blindfolded Sherlock (played by Robert Downey Jr.) uses the presence of the bump at the 'Fleet Conduit' in order to gain his bearings: "After that, the carriage forked left, then right, and then the tell-tale bump at the Fleet Conduit."
  • In John Twelve Hawks "The Golden City" (The Fourth Realm Trilogy) 2010, the Fleet is an important part of the chapters 29 and 30.
  • The Fleet is mentioned in the novel Rivers of London (2011) by Ben Aaronovitch; and in Blue Monday (2011) by crime novelist Nicci French.
  • "London Underground", a 2014 episode (Season 11 episode 5) of BBC One drama New Tricks, features a storyline about a murder by an occult group in the 1970s who believed that the Fleet demanded human sacrifices. Airdate 15 September 2014
  • The novel Goodnight, John-Boy (2017) by Pat Mills
depicts the disposal of a murder victim's body through an access hatch into the Fleet sewer pipe, where it is washed out into the Thames.

See also

References

  1. ^ "fleet, n.2". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 1989.
  2. ISBN 0-7195-5288-5
    .
  3. ^ Godfrey, Walter; Marcham, W. (1952). "King's Cross Neighbourhood". Survey of London. Vol. 24. London: Victoria County History.
  4. OCLC 1016252323
    .
  5. ^ 'West of Farringdon Road', in Survey of London: Volume 47, Northern Clerkenwell and Pentonville, ed. Philip Temple (London, 2008), pp. 22-51. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol47/pp22-51 [accessed 2 August 2020].
  6. ^ The History of the River Fleet, UCL Fleet Restoration Team, 2009
  7. ^ From a map based on Stow c.1600, (discussed in "Street-names of the City of London", (1954) by Eilert Ekwall) shows the "Fagswell Brook" south of Cowcross Street as the northern boundary of the City
  8. ^ 'Introduction', in Survey of London: Volume 46, South and East Clerkenwell, ed. Philip Temple (London, 2008), pp. 3–27. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol46/pp3-27 [accessed 27 July 2020].
  9. ^ article on MOLA excavations http://islingtontribune.com/article/crossrail-engineers-find-500-year-old-shoes-in-clerkenwell-mud
  10. ^ Bolton, Tom (3 July 2020). "Where to see and hear the hidden River Fleet". Londonist. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  11. ^ Boris Johnson to revive London’s lost rivers (payment required)
  12. ^ Jowit, Juliette (8 January 2009). "River rescue: project launched to breathe life into waterways buried under London concrete and brick". The Guardian. p. 15. Retrieved 8 January 2009.
  13. ^ Spain, Rob: "A possible Roman Tide Mill", Paper submitted to the Kent Archaeological Society
  14. ^ Wickstead, Thomas (January 1840). "On the supply of water to the Metropolis". The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal. III (28): 10.
  15. ^ Dunciad, book the second
  16. ^ [Crosby Collection at the London Metropolitan Archive https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/collection?i=322296]
  17. ^ Jonson, Ben. "On the Famous Voyage". sewerhistory.org. Archived from the original on 23 April 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  18. ^ McRae, Andrew (1998). "'On the Famous Voyage': Ben Jonson and Civic Space". Early Modern Literary Studies. 4 (Special Issue 3).
  19. ^ Talling, Paul. "London's Lost Rivers: River Fleet". Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  20. ^ Zakir-Hussain, Maryam (30 July 2021). "Hampstead Poet Paul O'Prey". Ham and High. Retrieved 15 September 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to River Fleet, London.


Next confluence upstream River Thames Next confluence downstream
River Effra (south) River Fleet River Walbrook (north)
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