The Tyburn, Fleet and Westbourne are just a few of the many rivers of London that have disappeared throughout the years. As London developed and grew, bridges were built to allow crossing and walls were erected to control the numerous rivers and streams. The exponential rise in the population of London meant more houses and roads and consequently many rivers were redirected underground.

The River Westbourne once flowed freely down from Hampstead through Kilburn and Maida Vale, along to Hyde Park, where it once fed the Serpentine Lake, onto Knightsbridge then Sloane Square and finally meeting the River Thames at Chelsea. The Westbourne was driven underground in the 1850s but it still leaves its mark on the modern city.

This picture was taken at Sloane Square tube station on the District Line of the London Underground. If you stand on either platform and look up (towards the ticket hall end) you will see a Victorian sewer suspended by girders that carries the last remnants of the River Westbourne. The river falls from the Ranelagh Sewer outfall into the Thames about 300 yards west of Chelsea Bridge and can still be seen at low tide.