A collection of 15 stories
Walking on water - London's Rivers
Following a river through London reveals connections which are easy to miss on a street map. Mills, reservoirs, railway embankments and housing estates gather around older courses; water disappears beneath roads and returns in the margins of parks and industrial land. These walks follow those threads through the city and its fringes, sometimes appearing - and often hiding. Nicholas Barton's 1962 book "The Lost Rivers of London" intrigued me sufficiently that I ended up finding them. Then branching out further.
The collection begins with the Wandle, Ravensbourne and Cray - largely above ground but still unremarked except by those who live near them and curse them when they flood. It then moves through the Dollis and Brent to Yeading Brook and the Crane - the Middlesex tributaries. The New River adds a deliberately constructed waterway before the northern and eastern walks follow the Ching, Lea and Roding towards the estuary. The final journey follows the Ingrebourne to Rainham, where landscape and remembrance meet.
Written between 2012 and 2019, these accounts preserve the paths, obstructions and changing places encountered at the time.
9 of 15 stories mapped
In this collection
Ill-treated and still hardworking: Walking The River Wandle
The turn of a year always generates reflection - and as I sped towards London on an unusual mid-month trip, I realised I'd not slept nearly enough. I was troubled by both physical and mental…
River Ravensbourne - Walking from Source to Creek
Anyone who regularly tolerates these missives which emerge from wanders along dusty roads or trickling minor rivers will know how quickly I can turn a pattern of walks into an altogether grander project.
The River Cray: A Perambulation of Kent
As my train lumbered across the junction and into the terminus platforms at Orpington station, I pondered the journey here. I should have been here a week ago, a long-planned and much anticipated…
Westering: In the Valley of the Dollis
The curious hidden exit of West Finchley station opens onto the long suburban wind of Nether Street. By the 14th century this route, sometimes known as Lower Street, was already regarded as an ancient way.
The Gentle Brent and The Grand Junction
Heading west out of Paddington, minutes after arriving, felt very strange indeed. A few minutes later, as I waited in a steady downpour outside Ealing Broadway station for the bus to Hanger Lane, I…
Yeading Brook - Here on this Middlesex Turf
I'm fairly often asked 'Why London?' when I speak about my wandering. Living in the West Country, a comfortable distance from the zone of poor air quality that sheaths the city is, to most, a huge…
River Crane - The End Stage of History
Returning to the scene is never wise, but if I was to fulfil my debt to the River Crane, it had to happen. Over a hectic summer with numerous missteps and changed plans, I'd always found somewhere else I needed to be.
Liquid Artifice: The New River
London has an enviable reputation as a resilient city. It has been burned and flooded, bombed and relentlessly attacked from within - yet it stands. Its people, in particular, are regarded as stoic and resolute - defiant against all the odds.
An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest...
Recommencing my explorations in a new year always feels uncertain and unplanned. Heading north to Scotland immediately after the festive season certainly helped me to relax a little, but after a…
Not Afraid of the Dark: The Old River Lea
There is a fairly certain sense to my London wanderings, built around a particular set of trains and a surprisingly uniform pattern of travel. I haven't, in the main, set out to do this consciously…
Hidden, but not Lost - The Roding Valley
As the Central Line train howled and screeched along the interminably long section between Stratford and Leytonstone, I mused on my hasty plans for today.
Estuarial Essence: Barking Creek
I'm back where I ended my last walk, in Ilford. This morning feels a little different - arriving by rail into the Town Centre I have only the vaguest memory of how to get to the River Roding.
Secret Rivers: A Disappearance in West Essex
Completing a project is something of an unfamiliar feeling here. It's rare I actually hold to a course for long enough to achieve any sort of goal, and even less common to feel that I've actually done justice to standards I've set myself.
Walking the Beam: An urban country ramble
It felt like a quite a while since I'd walked beside water... My journey to London had been sleepy and distracted. Relaxing didn't come easy this morning after a long and trying week, but as I made…
London's Green Fringe: The River Ingrebourne
I stood, shivering at the bus stop in the middle of a group of mildly disgruntled passengers. We'd been here for a while, despite being told that the replacement bus service was 'just around the corner' several times.