The River Fleet - London’s most famous subterranean waterway - rises on Hampstead Heath then runs beneath Kentish Town, Camden Town, St Pancras, Clerkenwell to Farringdon

At Farringdon Street the Fleet broadens out, & straightens, to join the Thames beneath Blackfriars Bridge.

If you fancy a walking tour/pub crawl, I’m off to find the source of the River Fleet & follow it to the Thames

A good place to start is the C18th
Wells Tavern

Pass the old pump rooms & the 1698 Chalybeate Well (meaning waters rich in iron)

At the end of Well Walk is the Heath

The source of the Fleet is 2 springs in Kenwood & here, at the Vale of Health

Before it was drained in the 1700’s, this was a malarial bog called Hatchett’s Bottom

From this pond, the river sets off across the Heath

It is the only place where the Fleet still flows above ground

In Roman times, the Fleet was a major river, with its estuary possibly containing the world’s oldest tidal mill

Many wells were built along its banks, (Bagnigge Well, Clerkenwell, St Bride's Well etc.) & in the C13th the river was called River of Wells

But then it came a sewer.

The river flows into the Highgate Ponds, 2 of which you can swim in

At the top of the meadow is the Tumulus, a Bronze Age barrow, or burial mound

Some people claim that Queen Boadicea was buried here after she was defeated by the Romans, beside the Fleet (singer @ilanalorraine)

In 1710, Jonathan Swift writes of the Fleet Ditch:

“Sweepings from Butchers Stalls, Dung, Guts & Blood,
Drown'd Puppies, stinking Sprats, all drench'd in Mud,
Dead Cats & Turnip-Tops come tumbling down the Flood”

After the 1858 “Great Stink”, Joseph Bazalgette designed sewers

"There are also excellent springs the water of which is sweet, clear & salubrious. Mid glistening pebbles gliding playfully, amongst which Holywell, Clerkenwell & St Clement's Well are most frequently visited.”

William Fitzstephen, Description of London, 1190

Times have changed

Here in Kentish Town we catch a glimpse of the Fleet again

(It’s also the next stop if you’re doing the pub crawl)

Kentish Town derives its name from the Ken-ditch (‘Caen’ being the Celtic word for green & 'ditch' referring to the Fleet)

“How did you lose your phone, Stefan?!”

Here in St Pancras, this medieval church used to stand on the banks of the Fleet.

Pancras was a teenager, beheaded in Rome in 304AD for failing to renounce his Christian faith. A church was built on this site a decade later, making It one of the oldest Christian sites in Europe.

In his 1878 book, Old & New London, Walter Thornbury writes that the stagnant backwaters of the river Fleet, “from man's neglect, have probably caused the death of more Londoners than have been slain in English battles since the Conquest”.

Here the river goes under Regent’ canal

Kings Cross takes its name from a statue erected in 1830 to George IV which was shoddily built, a hazard to traffic & demolished in 1845

Before then, it was a called Battle Bridge & was an ancient crossing over the Fleet & was the site of a 60 AD battle btw the Romans & Boudicea

In Farringdon, we see the Fleet again, down a drain outside the Coach (Hockley Hole), a pub that used to offer fugitives an escape route to the Thames through a door in the cellar behind the bear-pit

In 1709, the landlord fell into the pit & "almost devoured" by one of his bears

This section of the Fleet is the only stretch where it maintains its original course from its headwaters to the Thames

When they were laying the Victorian sewer - 15 feet under Ray St - they found traces of a Roman pavement & underneath that, the petrified remains of a mill dam

"Thy arbours, Bagnigge, and the gay alcove,
Where the frail nymphs in am'rous dalliance rove."

It hard to imagine now, but this bit of Kings Cross - then called 'Bagnigge Wells' - was one of the most fashionable resorts in London for a hundred years (mid-1700 until mid-1800s).

Bagnigge Wells was a popular haunt among highway men

In 1767 the notorious John Rann - known as ‘Sixteen-String Jack’ due to his habit of wearing eight silk ribbons on each knee - got too fresh with a lady in the ballroom & was thrown out of a window into the Fleet river below.

In 1683, a Edward Sadler found a spring in his garden and opened Sadler's Wells a spa & theatre

They made use of their proximity to the Fleet & the New River even building an "aquatic stage" to represent the Siege of Gibraltar

Past Sadler's Wells is Exmouth Market & Spa Fields

Clerkenwell took its name from the Clerks' Well, dating back to 11th century

The site of the well was lost for centuries until accidentally discovered by workmen in 1924

It was preserved in an chamber under an office building on Farringdon Lane & can be viewed through a window

Spa Fields is perhaps best known for the riots in 1816 demanding electoral reform

The rioting led to the passing of the “Gagging Acts”, which included the Seditious Meetings Act of 1817 which made it illegal for gatherings of more than 50 people to occur

How times have changed!

The smell of the Fleet on Saffron Hill isn't v pleasant now

750 years ago animal blood, hair & excrement from slaughterhouses, tanneries & latrines clogged the river, causing a stench so bad that, in 1290, the local friars said their most pungent incense failed to mask the stink

During the middle ages, ships would sail from the Thames to Holborn. Two major bridges crossed the Fleet, but boats could still navigate the river until at least 1307

13th-century documents record masonry being shipped up the Fleet for the construction of the St Paul’s cathedral

"For a writer seeking truth or an artist seeking beauty, their gut tells them when they are nearing the source. They listen to their guts, as you must listen to yours. We are all of us on a journey. A journey that begins at the source & ends at the source."
(Emerson Warner, 1949)

A journalist's job is to ask the questions, uncover the facts & sound the alarm

But we're ALL responsible for demanding that the questions are answered, the facts are admitted to & the alarm is sounded

I've found ANOTHER source & am plotting its course https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1307448467741192200

My search for the Fleet is a reminder that 'the Source' is often right in front of our faces or just beneath our feet

We just have to know where & how to look

It's not just journalists & artists who seek truth & beauty

We all do

And we can all find it. https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1317243911493066755