Forgotten Streams

I love walking – pretty much anywhere. Every place has its particularities. Every surface feels different.

I love walking in London a lot, because there’s always so much underneath my feet. Walking on history, quite the experience, and when it comes to history, there’s certainly no shortage of that. One of my favourite things here is to walk on rivers.

Rivers?

Yes, rivers. I like to walk on rivers. Easy, in London. No special superpowers required. Just walk along Fleet Street, and you’re walking on water. The River Fleet, the largest subterranean river in the city and now part of the sewer system, still underneath the concrete. And if you don’t believe me: The river can be seen and heard through a grating in Ray Street, Clerkenwell in front of The Coach pub, just off Farringdon Road.

I’m a particular fan of the River Walbrook, a watercourse which played an important role in the Roman settlement of London and later used to be a dividing line in the city. This ‘brook of the foreigners’ marked the border between the Britons living on Cornhill in to the east and the Saxons on Ludgate Hill to the west. The Walbrook was slowly buried over the ensuing centuries. There’s nothing left, apart from its name.

I walked past Christina Iglesias’ sculpture ‘Forgotten Streams’ the other day, made of bronze, granite and water.

Picture credit: Britta Benson. Part of ‘Forgotten Streams’.

I love this piece of public art right in the busy middle of the City of London. The perfect place to sit down. The artist took inspiration from the ancient Walbrook which flowed through this site for hundreds of years. Anyone stopping now can see water trickling out of hidden spouts, bringing the river back to live. I spent quite some time on the stone benches, watching people hurry past.

Forgotten streams, still a great source of flow and inspiration!

Happy Thursday to you all, and I’ll see you here tomorrow, if you wish!

©️2024 Britta Benson. No unauthorized use permitted.