River Fleet


The River Fleet is the largest of London's subterranean rivers. Its headwaters are two streams on Hampstead Heath, each of which was dammed into a series of ponds—the Hampstead Ponds and the 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 from the ponds to the River Thames.
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 Anglo-Saxon flēot "tidal inlet". In Anglo-Saxon times, the Fleet served as a dock for shipping.
The lower reaches of the river were known as the Holbourne, whence Holborn derived its name.
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.

Course and tributaries

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, referring to an ancient bridge over the Fleet where Boudica's army is said to have fought an important battle against the Romans; the name was changed in the 19th century to refer to a statue of George IV and quickly replaced by the "lighthouse" building that still stands today. From there, it heads down King's Cross Road, and into Clerkenwell. The river then flows down Farringdon Road and Farringdon Street, where the valley broadens out, and straightens, to join the Thames beneath Blackfriars Bridge. In the lower reaches the valley slopes remain very obvious in the surrounding streets, and explain the presence of two viaduct bridges, which carry roads over parts of the valley floor.

Fagswell Brook

The Fagswell Brook was a tributary that joined the Fleet from the east and, in part, formed the northern boundary of the City of London. 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
A part of the course close to Charterhouse Square was excavated as part of the Crossrail project.

Today

The Fleet, or rather the sewer that now follows its route, can be heard through a grating in Ray Street, Clerkenwell in front of The Coach pub, just off Farringdon Road. The position of the river can still be seen in the surrounding streetscape with Ray Street and its continuation, Warner Street, lying in a valley where the river once flowed. It can also be heard through a grid in the centre of Charterhouse Street, where it joins Farringdon Road. In wet weather, and on a very low tide, the murky Fleet can be seen gushing into the Thames from the Thameswalk exit of Blackfriars station, immediately under Blackfriars bridge.
The former mayor of London, Boris Johnson, proposed opening short sections of the Fleet and other rivers for ornamental purposes, although the Environment Agency – which manages the project – is pessimistic that the Fleet can be among those uncovered.

History

In Roman times, the Fleet was a major river, with its estuary possibly containing the oldest tidal mill in the world. The river secured the western flank of the Roman City.
In Anglo-Saxon times, the Fleet was still a substantial body of water, joining the Thames through a marshy tidal basin over wide at the mouth of the Fleet Valley. Many wells were built along its banks, and some on springs and St Bride's Well, were reputed to have healing qualities; in the 13th century the river was called River of Wells. 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 sewer. The area came to be characterised by poor-quality housing and prisons: Bridewell Palace itself was converted into a prison; Newgate, Fleet and Ludgate prisons were all built in that area. In 1728 Alexander Pope wrote in his 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".
Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, architect Christopher Wren's proposal for widening the river was rejected. Rather, the Fleet was converted into the New Canal, completed in 1680 under the supervision of Robert Hooke. Newcastle Close and Old Seacoal Lane recall the wharves that used to line this canal, especially used by the coastal coal trade from the north-east of England.
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 Regent's Canal and urban growth covered the river in King's Cross and Camden from 1812. The Fleet Market was closed during the 1860s with the construction of Farringdon Road and 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.

Cultural references