Looking Back to Hampstead Hight Street, walking along Wells lane.
Nice phone boxes visible on the village green, with the Heath up ahead. The red building is an old baths house, now flats.
Not baths anymore, just fashionable flats
Walking along Well lane
Marie Stopes house; who became controversial for suggesting that women could/should enjoy sex!
A typical pub, with some nice history of the area.
A Hampstead Church
The original Chalybeate Well/Spa which made Hampstead fashionable
The site of the old Chalybeate water pumping station
We have now climbed up Hampstead Heath, and have reached the pond feeding the river Fleet.
The source of the river is around here somewhere? Is Henry standing on it? (its actually to the right of the picture)
The source of the river Fleet is where Henry's right foot is placed. One might think that some notice for tourists might have been here but there is nothing along the entire course of the river. A local asked what we were doing, and was quite surprised to hear the story! By the way, this source is in fact much more definitive than that for the Thames itself, which has long been dry.
The river Fleet just meters away from leaving the pond. It does rather look like a recent stream, rather than a river that ran well in mediaval times.
The bridge ahead crosses the river Fleet. A viaduct is over the top of the hill (see other photo).
The river Fleet in "embryonic" stage. Standing on the bridge referred to in the previous caption.
A viaduct, built to allow horse drawn coaches to reach a villa. The latter was never built, since Parliament did not grant planning permission.
Traipsing through the woods to avoid a particularly muddy path
The middle of three ponds fed by the river Fleet. An island can just be seen in the middle, where sit cormorants.
This is the end of the visible river Fleet, about 1 km from its source!
The grill at the bottom of the pond is the last sign of the river Fleet above ground. From hence, it flows underground to the Thames.
On the way back to Hamstead, via Keats's House
Garden of Keats House
More of Keat's House
Is this ugly or what? We have just left King's Cross railway station, following the old course of the river Fleet.
Who/what is Soas?
A rather nice police station
The enscription on the plaque describes the site of the Bagnigge Wells, one of several spas along the course of the river Fleet
The area is characterised by a diversity of unusual brick buildings.
One of very many pubs in the area. Given the time, we had not sampled!
Apparently, at Henry's feet, the middle level Bazalgette sewer (left to right) intercepts the river Fleet (up/down) and takes it away to Beckton sewage works. What remains of the river's flow goes on to the Thames (as another photo shows). Behind the brick wall is the Mount Pleasant sorting office.
Mount Pleasant sorting office, the original (there are now many such with the same name). The name originates from the ironic description of a large rubbish dump, which being just outside the limits of the city, was not governed by its bylaws
High/lo tech!
Just south of Mount pleasant, looking at another viaduct, less famous than Holborn. This road more or less lies along the course of the old river Fleet. Note the pub the Apple Mac was named after!
This well is mentioned in writings dating back to 1174. It was then "lost", and only refound in 1924.
Buildings along Turnmill street. The river Fleet flowed strongly here once, and actually drove various mills. Some of these were associated with brewers and distilleries. Thus gin was a popular product made here once. Smithfield meat market is at the back, and the effluent from the meat and milling so polluted the Fleet, that it had to be closed!
Farringdon station, build around 1860 (the earliest underground railway in the world).
The Metropolitan line was the first (of many).
Walking down Farringdon Road, another example of unusual and attractive architecture. But if you only knew what was happening inside!
The rear of the spectacular frontage seen in the adjacent photo. Turns out the guts of this building were being stripped, to be replaced by modern offices. All is not always what it seems from the front!
St Etheldreda's chapel, sandwiched between more modern buildings. All that remains of the Palace of Ely.
The great palace of Ely is now all gone except for the chapel!
This stained glass window is the largest of its kind in London! A little known fact.
The rear of the chapel also has a large window. The date is obviously not from the 13th century, when the chapel was built.
The glass building is the Sainsburies supermarket "support centre"
Looking ahead to Holborn viaduct (Holebourne, or stream in a hollow, was an early name for the river Fleet).
Looking East on Holborn viaduct. Notice the anti-terrorist measures on the pavement. A sign of the times!
Ornate lights on the Holborn viaduct
A celebration of Science (the other three statues are to Fine Arts, Commerce and Agriculture. Typically Victorian!)
The old and the new!
The red building in the distance is the Central Criminal court, otherwise known as the Old Bailey. We are standing on Holborn viaduct.
Holborn viaduct (circa 1865) from below.
At the junction of Farringdon road and Fleet street. The latter became the generic name fot the UK newspaper industry, although it has now moved out of the area.
The Blackfriar pub on the site of the old 13th century monastery, which gives it its name. A small portion of original wall is supposedly visible at the back of the pub. To the right is Blackfriars station.
On the Thames path, looking west. The London Eye is in the distance on the left
Henry, looking down at the mouth of the river Fleet, which emerges from a sewer outlet down below. Overhead is the present Blackfriars road bridge. The railway bridge is in the distance, and sandwiched in the middle are the pillars of the old railway bridge, now demolished.
Old and new. Is that a gaslight to the left?
The old bridge, removed in 1985
Blackfriars bridge, old and new
This is the mouth of the river Fleet (the metal cover to the sewage outlet, and the bubbles on the Thames created by the falling water). It must be one of the very few rivers whose flow at the mouth is more or less the same as at its source!