The Lost Rivers of London

This blog covers my first, and more recent, encounter with some of the lost rivers of London, I hope my experiences will make for an interesting read.

I started working as an assistant surveyor in Primrose Hill, June 1990 covering the London’s Maida Vale, Primrose Hill, Camden and Hampstead. Properties often came with clay soil issues and structural movement problems. I was soon involved with dealing with insurance claims representing the property owners for underpinning works.

What I didn’t appreciate back then that there was another factor which was causing structural movement - the numerous buried streams, creeks and rivers throughout London, which are direct or indirect tributaries of the upper estuary of the Thames Tideway, also known as the Lost Rivers of London.

Later whilst working as a consultant for the Lord Phillimore Pembridge Estate in Holland Park, myself and a project team undertook a major refurbishment of a large detached house on Upper Phillimore Gardens.

Whilst excavating the lower ground floor and rear garden, the soil gave way forming a subterranean river running from the garden and flooding the site. Another example of a lost river of London! The tributary to the front of the property went down to Kensington High Street, undisturbed for probably over a century. The excavation during the basement dig out had located the tributary called Counters Creek, which flowed from Notting Hill Gate to below the High Street.

The problem was solved by installing a temporary steel barrier, subsoil drainage and waterproof concrete to the basement floor and walls either side.

So that was the ‘before’ photograph and this is the ‘after’ photograph!

Stuart Scotland
27/1/22