London's Subterranean Rivers

Sigh. Again with the Wikipedia.

In my wanderings on the interweb, I dig up a lot of interesting little tidbits about the hidden right under our noses. If only I had known when I lived in London that right under my feet were miles of subterranean rivers, I would have spent a lot less time napping on the grass in Regent's Park, and a lot more time crawling around London's underbelly with a Maglite and a pair of neoprene waders.

As London developed, the need for space necessitated burying beneath the city the tributaries which fed the Thames and Lea, many of which were converted into sewers (and it would be just a little cool to contract the plague on an adventure). Today there are over a dozen of these tunnel systems running under the city. I haven't found a very good list of these rivers (some so large they were once navigated by barges), and everything I find has hints of rivers that are truly lost, no one sure of their exact location, or if they ever existed at all.

Sub-Urban, of course, has quite a few adventures within the rivers chronicled on their site, including the River Fleet, the largest of London's underground rivers. I appreciate their ability to show and not tell - nobody likes a loud mouth schnook who gives it all away (is that what this blog is all about, I now wonder?), as it is invariably followed by newly fenced-off entrances and CCTV guardians. After all, some secrets are better left so.

Next time I'm in London, I'm bringing rubber boots.