by Nicholas Barton was lent to me by Mr W after we’d been discussing the Thames bridge book (“Cross River Traffic”) which I read while I was off sick. As the name suggests, it’s about the other rivers in London many of which have been hidden – covered up and effectively turned into drains. Originally published in 1962, this second edition dates back to 1992, and certainly the author has done his homework.

I already knew about the Fleet, which runs down from Hampstead Heath past Kings Cross underneath Farringdon Street and flows into the Thames from a pipe just by Blackfriars Bridge. It’s quite famous because of Fleet Street. But this book contains chapters on other rivers I didn’t know about – the Tyburn (which flows through Regent’s Park), the Westbourne (which feeds the Serpentine in Hyde Park), the Walbrook and others. The award for best-named river goes to the Effra, which sounds marvellously Anglo-Saxon. There is also a chapter on “dubious” lost rivers such as the Cranbourn which is a theatreland legend but appears to be a misinterpretation of a sewer. Disappointing!

Perhaps my favourite thing about the book is the many black and white illustrations. Several of these show rivers flowing across fields which are now in the centre of town! There is a particularly lovely painting from about 1750 which shows the junction of the Fleet and the Thames and it looks positively Venetian, like something by Caravaggio (edit: I meant Canaletto. Duh! There go my arty-farty credentials!)

In the bridges book, the author mentioned as a throwaway comment that at Baker Street tube station you can see a pipe which contains the Tyburn, and at Sloane Square tube you can see one containing the Westbourne. This book actually has a photo of the pipe at Sloane Square, which goes over the tracks and which you would think was a passenger walkway if you didn’t know it had a river in it! Absolutely amazing and I’m definitely going to look out for it next time I’m in that neck of the woods.

There’s also a brilliant fold-out map at the back which shows the routes of all the rivers – I was excited to see that several tributaries of the Fleet start in the Bloomsbury area.

All in all, this is a rather lovely book. I probably won’t buy my own copy but I was glad to get a chance to read it.