subject: Londons Other Rivers - The West End [print this page] London is one of the most famous river cities in the world with the River Thames being its lifeblood down the centuries and key to its success as the hub of the biggest empire ever seen. However, if you ask people to name any other rivers running through the UKs capital they may struggle. Before being built upon, numerous rivers coursed the low lying wetlands that once occupied the site of the Thames basin where Londons modern metropolis stands. Many smaller tributaries have disappeared with the development of the city and a good few streams and rivers became buried in culverts and sewerage systems, with just a handful maintaining their presence above the surface. this article looks at some of the more notable.
Tyburn/Tybourne
One long lost river which has a lasting legacy in spawning a significant area of settlement, despite its small size, is the Tybourne, or Tyburn. This stream would have risen in South Hampstead and meandered down to the Thames, splitting into two (possibly even three) before reaching the great river. In the process it would have created an island, Thorney Island, where Westminster Abbey was built and the Palace of Westminster also now stands. On its route it would have flowed through what we would recognise as Hampstead, St Johns Wood, Regents Park, Marylebone, Mayfair, and Westminster. The area of Marylebone is one in particular that can trace its name back to the ancient stream, named as it is after the church of St Mary on the banks of the bourne.
Through West London the river would have passed along or near many of what are, these days, the capitals most familiar streets and landmarks: passed Primrose HIll, through Regents Park itself, along Baker Street, across Oxford Street and Bond Street tube station, across Piccadilly, through Green Park, through St Jamess park, passed the front of where Buckingham Palace now stands and around the raised ground where Westminster Abbey stands. The streams waters are now culverted and incorporated into Londons sewerage systems but there are still remnants of its presence above ground including the Boating Lake in Regents Park and St Jamess Park Lake. Whats more, along its underground route it now passes underneath Buckingham Palace whilst it is also thought that a culverted stream open to shoppers in the basement of Grays Antique Centre and filled with exotic fish, is a segment of the lost river.
In the streams history it has lent its name to the lost village of Tyburn which is still infamous for the Tyburn gallows or Tyburn Tree where Newgate prisoners were taken for hanging until the late 1700s and which stood where Tyburn Road (Oxford Street) and Tyburn Lane (Park Lane) met, now Marble Arch.
Westbourne
The River Tyburn should not be confused with the Tyburn Brook which in turn is a tributary of the next lost river, the River Westbourne. This river would have run just to the west of the Tyburn, but, akin to its near neighbour would have also originated from the Hampstead hills. On its route to the Thames in Chelsea (in the grounds of the Royal Hospital), it would have passed through wetlands and meadows that are now some of the most exclusive residential districts in the world, including Knightsbridge and Belgravia. Earlier in its course, it would have flowed through Kilburn, where a number of its tributaries met, Maida Vale, Bayswater and then Hyde Park.
The river has one of the most obvious legacies in the names of the surrounding areas of the West End. It was once named the Kilburn (royal river), particularly upstream, and was referred to as Bayswater further down its length, hence the modern names of two of the districts on its banks. Whats more, the stretch that passed through Hyde Park had been known as the Serpentine River and an echo of it can still be seen in the ornamental lake that forms the Serpentine and Long Water in the modern Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park (created by damming the river in the 18th century). Even Knightsbridge takes its name from a long lost bridge over the Westbourne - a spot where Empress Matilda once confronted the capitals citizens during the 12th centurys Anarchy. The river also lends its name to many nearby streets such as Westbourne Park and the adjacent tube station.
In the 15th century the rivers waters from Bayswater were diverted to provide clean water for the city of London, however, as the surrounding West End developed in the 18th and 19th centuries, the waters became unclean and were buried to form sewers and culverts under the new residences. The underground rivers course can still be seen in pipes running through Sloane Square tube station.
