BURIED RIVERS. 77 



' BURIED RIVERS ' OF THE NORTHERN SIDE. 



The Little Ealing Brook drains a small area south of Baling and joins 

 the Thames east of Brentford. 



The Stamford Brook flowed through Acton Vale to the Thames at 

 Hammersmith ; Dr. A. Morley Davies states that ' the twin mouths can 

 be seen one opposite the east end of Chiswick Eyot, the other under 

 Hammersmith Mall.' 1 It was not this stream, but a smaller one entering 

 the river just below Hammersmith Bridge that gave its name to Brook 

 Green. 



The Bridge Creek (or Counters Creek) flowed through West Kensington 

 past Addison Road Station and Walham Green to enter the Thames at 

 Sands End. The lower part was at one time made navigable for barges. 



The West Bourne (or Bayswater Brook) rose in the Bagshot Sand 

 above West End, Hampstead, and after receiving the Kilburn as a 

 tributary flowed to Bayswater, crossing the site of the Great Western 

 Railway near Royal Oak. Early in the 12th century there was a 

 hermitage near Kilburn Bridge, which developed into Kilburn Abbey, 

 remembered now in the names Abbey Road and Abbot's Road; at the 

 dissolution the Abbey passed to the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem, whence 

 we get St. John's Wood. In 1730 the stream was dammed to form the 

 Serpentine, at the instigation of Queen Caroline ; it supplied the Bayswater 

 district with water till 1844. Since the diversion of the stream into the 

 sewers the Serpentine has been supplied from a well sunk at its northern 

 end in 1861. 



Like other streams draining a London Clay area the West Bourne 

 filled up rapidly after a storm; in the lower course, below Knights' 

 Bridge, where the fall is very slight, floods were frequent ; as recently as 

 1809 the flood-waters stopped all traffic, except by boat, between West- 

 minster and Chelsea. The Bourne entered the Thames just wes^ of 

 Chelsea Bridge; the storm-relief sewer which takes its place may be 

 seen crossing over the railway at Sloane Square Station. 



The Ty Bourne (Tyburn or Aye Brook) took its rise north of Belsize 

 Park and Avenue in South Hampstead and flowed across the northern 

 part of the area of the present lake in Regent's Park; past St. Mary-le- 

 Bone (St. Mary by the Burn), by Marylebone Lane and Brook Street, 

 and so by the depression in Piccadilly to the Green Park. Hay Hill is 

 a Cockney corruption of Aye Hill, and gets its name from this stream's 

 other title. Near Buckingham Palace the stream divided, one branch 

 entering the river just above Vauxhall Bridge, the other again dividing 

 on either side of Thorney Island, an eyot of gravel and sand in the alluvial 

 marsh, on which Westminster Abbey stands. The southern branch passed 

 along Great College Street, where the remains of an ancient bridge were 

 found when St. Edward's House was built. The northern mouth was 

 by Scotland Yard; this was rendered navigable for a short distance and 

 was known as the Mersfleet; remains of the wharfs have been found at 

 Storey's Gate. 



The Fleet River (River of Wells, or Holebourne) took its rise on the 

 slopes between Hampstead and Highgate, from the Vale of Health, whence 

 it derived the supply for Hampstead Ponds (made about 1590), and from 

 Ken (or Caen) Wood, whence comes the supply for the Highgate Ponds. 

 Below these ponds the streams are buried, but formerly they united to 

 the west of the Kentish Town Road, a little north of the North London 

 Railway between Chalk Farm and Camden Town Stations. Thence the 

 stream flowed past Old St. Pancras to Battle Bridge (now called King's 

 Cross), the traditional site of the battle between Suetonius and Boadicea, 

 and so along the valley where is now Farringdon Street, Ludgate Circus 



1 ' The Geography of Greater London,' Journ. School Geogr., vol. v, 1901, 

 p. 44. 



