Lost Rivers of London

GUIDED WALK with Ben Waddington

Sat 24 May 2025 | 10 30am- 5pm

£22

Meet: Shakespeare statue New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA

Ends: St Saviours Dock Bermondsey, London SE1 2BQ

The lost rivers of London have merely been mislaid… This 'Coil-adjacent' walk charts the overland course of two of underground rivers, each becoming lost by design. At some point during London’s growth, the need for new land superseded the need for a river. The presence of the rivers can still be felt however, via a cultural echo: in building and street names, references to former bridges and banks and in public art. The river itself can occasionally be seen or heard through surface level grids and drains. The challenge for urban explorers is to discover and piece together the evidence.

Coil loved their wayward waterways, be they lost, dark, silver, sluggish and / or golden. This day-long exploration captures some of that spirit of contemporary myth-making and imaginative discovery by tracing the full routes of two of London's shorter rivers, the Walbrook and the Neckinger.