River Fleet: from source to the Thames

This walk is rather different from others on JordanWalks. Firstly, Richard wasn’t there (Sally did the walk with two friends from undergraduate days, nearly 40 years ago). Secondly, there is no official route, though we were mostly following the route given in Freedom Pass London by Mike Pentelow and Peter Arkell (not, you understand, that we are old enough for a bus pass, more’s the pity – and I am unlikely ever to be eligible for a freedom pass because I don’t live in London). Thirdly, whilst I wanted to include this walk in JordanWalks because it follows a river (perhaps inspired by the fact that at the time of writing we are part-way along both the Teesdale Way and the Ouse Valley Way), the river in question is mostly hidden from sight, well below 21st Century London. However, many of the places you pass, from Fleet Street (obviously) to Holborn (from “hol” for hollow and “bourne”, a brook) are named for their association with the river. The River Fleet has two sources, one on Hampstead Heath (which we visited); the two rivers merge somewhere in the King’s Cross area (which was originally named “Battle Bridge” and was an ancient crossing of the river) and the outfall into the River Thames is at Blackfriars Bridge.

What the walk lacks in river frontage is more than compensated for by the very large number of interesting sights that the route passes – and with Penny and Pam, both of whom know London very well, there was never a dull moment. I will not attempt to list all the places we passed, or to give the exact route. I will also not attempt to list all the famous people whose houses we passed, but I know (because I photographed the plaques) they include George Orwell and W.B. Yeats.

Pam and Penny met me from the slightly delayed 10.44 train at Kings Cross and we caught the tube to Hampstead. From here we walked down Flask Walk and Well Walk (complete with well) and onto Hampstead Heath. The path took is to some of the ponds which form the headwaters of the river, and then past one of the spots where the river has been dammed to form a bathing pool. We took a diversion to climb onto Parliament Hill, with superb views over London. We got slightly lost in trying to find the right way back to the official route, then walked past Hampstead Heath Station and The Royal Free Hospital before cutting through Belize Park to Primrose Hill. Here we again climbed and there were again good views; similar to those from Hampstead Heath but now the landmarks such as the Post Office Tower and St Pauls were noticeably nearer.

We turned up Regent’s Park Road and stopped for lunch at Lemonia, a lovely and extremely reasonably priced Greek restaurant. We retraced our steps and continued around Regent’s Park Road, then up Fitzroy Road and right onto Gloucester Avenue which brought us to the Regent’s Canal, and so to Camden. It got busier and busier as we walked over the locks at Camden and Pam warned us of pick-pockets, so I was nervous. However it was nice to be walking alongside water, even though the Fleet valley was some distance away. We left the canal near St Pancras station and cut through to Old St Pancras Church, with its peaceful churchyard. I knew the next bit of the route, up to St Pancras Station, though I hadn’t known how close to the original Fleet valley we were walking and I had not seen the new Francis Crick Building which will be opening later this year.

We cut through the courtyard of the British Library and crossed Euston Road, then cut down minor roads into Bloomsbury, passing various University of London buildings and, at Tavistock Square, the memorial to the London bus bombings and a lovely statue of Ghandi. This is so close to where I regularly walk along Euston Road, but I didn’t know it was here. We crossed Russell Square and passed the British Museum, then stopped for tea at the London Review Bookshop café. The tea was lovely, and plentiful, but unfortunately their toilet was out of action so we went back to the British Museum.

It was now about 5.30pm and as Penny and Pam dived down side streets through Holborn we were passing a large number of pubs and wine bars with drinkers spilling out onto the street as they celebrated the end of the working week. At one stage I realised we were passing the London School of Economics, where I have visited tutorials. Then, suddenly, we were on Fleet Street, opposite the building (number 10) where Penny used to work. We turned left down Fleet Street and kept walking, passing newspaper buildings and some of the original London buildings with very narrow frontages, which survived the Fire of London and everything that the city has thrown at them since. We passed St Brides Church and there were good views down Fleet Street to The Shard and “The Gherkin”.

The River Fleet actually flows underneath Farrington Street, and we turned right to follow its route at Ludgate Circus. We were soon at Blackfriars Bridge, the end of the walk. Penny and Pam advised me to return to take the mainline train from Blackfriars Bridge, so I did this, travelling with Penny as far as St Pancras. The views from the station platform along the river were magnificent, and I had a very good journey home, just managing to catch the 18.44 from Kings Cross home.