The Lost River of Walthamstow | secret underground stream (4K)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ม.ค. 2021
- Walking the Lost River of Walthamstow - secret underground stream in northeast London, tributary of the River Lea (in 4K)
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Watch this video of my walk along the Philley Brook • Leytonstone's Lost Riv...
I go in search of an underground river in Upper Walthamstow on the edge of Epping Forest following reports of the sighting of the stream flowing beneath the street.
We start at Whipps Cross, Leytonstone and pick up the course of the stream at Bisterne Avenue, Walthamstow E17. Our walk takes us across Wood Street and along Brooke Road, Shernhall Street, Raglan Road, Peterborough Road to Forest Road Leytonstone where we meet Leytonstone's lost river, The Philley Brook (Fillebrook).
Philley Brook walk in 2010 with Nick Papadimitriou and David Boote • Through the 'Urethra o...
Open Street Map credit “© OpenStreetMap contributors” www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
Music:
Hannah's Song by Chris Haugen
Length of Light by Amulets
Seclusion by The Tides
Zodiac Structures -by NoMBe
Dream Escape by The Tides
Canon in D Major by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
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Wandering and Floating by Au.Ra
Nevada City by Huma-Huma
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Another excellent, educational and therapeutic video. Who cares what’s on TV when work of this quality is available?!
many thanks indeed
I've said this about so many topics on TH-cam. From watch collecting, fossil hunting, rsilways industrial archeology etc the production and presentation is suoerb. puts tge BBC, with its massive budgets and oveblown staff, to shane
@@admiralcraddock464 and that’s a whole fact sir
0:15 That's me! I went for a lunchtime walk around Hollow Ponds and clearly walked past you completely oblivious.
Cool jacket, it must be a bit frustrating that you walked past John and missed the chance to have a chat with him.
hahaha nice video bomb
I worked as a surveyor for an approved contractor for LB of Waltham Forest and the scope of works included void work , remedials including unexplained damp issues and as result locating drainage runs . You missed the biggest clue for the head at Upper Walthamstow and walked past it along Bisterne Road . Avon Road is the course of the river as "Avon " is old Brythonic for ' river '. Yep the River Avon is actually the River River .
Hi John. Lived on Chadwick Road. Can confirm had a water course in the basement cellar discovered digging down during building work. Was always suspicious as the cellar floor had damp only in one section. Had the water analysed and was definitely a stream not some leaking drain. Considered bottling it and selling it as Leytonstone spa!
You should have charged folk
For a paddle . Xxx
@@morriganwitch Yes, this Yorkshireman missed a trick there. Thanks to the info and commentary on this post I discover the long gone Wallwood House had a large pond with a little island now where Preston Road sits but backing on to Chadwick roads back gardens. That might explain my little mystery stream. X
74 now,I lived at the Hoe street end of First Avenue and when they dug the Victoria line, we started getting clear water pouring beteween the bricks in the cellar. My dad had to get it sealed up. Was told they had disturbed the water table. As a kid I would often walk with my friend through the forest following the streams, sadly dried up now.
I thought it was called filthy river, idk might be more marketable.
You can get Thames Water to sample the water and tell you the source.
Never thought of an electricity sub station as a temple to a river before. Thank you for another relaxing (for the viewer) walk.
“Their spirits insist on breaking free”. Such poetry in your storytelling. Thank you.
Thank you John for a captivating 45 minutes. I work in Leyton and drive past the big Puddle at the lowest point in James Lane where the river crosses beneath. I couldn't resist taking a picture this evening of the reflections of the traffic in the Puddle, been meaning to do it for ages. 👍
The sound of running rivers is just magical. truly love walking beside them
Hello John. I hope you are well. I used to live in Southwest Road (the Phillebrook flowed directly behind you from the shot of the manhole cover at the end of your video). We had those massive pipes (like those you highlighted in Peterborough Rd in this vid) inserted into the ground near to where the phone box is/was in our junction with Bulwer Rd around late 1992. This was because our house in Southwest Road flooded pretty badly several times in the mid-80's. Ironically, our neighbours from the back of us in Drayton Rd owned the land immediately behind the manhole cover shot and proposed building flats there (over the course of the Philli) around 15 years ago. Us and our neighbours in Southwest Rd successfully fought this off. However, our family moved out of Southwest Rd ten years ago and I saw from your Philli video that they have now built flats there (the irony here being that they probably cited the improved drainage from the Philli there when being successful with their building proposals second time round). One more little thing, I do remember as a kid boring a hole in the ground to our garden in Southwest Road during normal weather conditions and hitting the Philli around 6 ft down! Thanks again John. All the best.
If you go to the Coombes Croft Library in Tottenham you can see the Moselle Brook river under a thick sheet of glass, the river goes underneath a lot of the main roads in the area
many thanks - the Moselle is on my list so hopefully do that in the Spring
What a treat to join you on this fascinating exploration looking for a lost stream. Your enthusiasm and excitement is so infectious I was on the edge of my seat several times as you came close to uncovering that elusive watercourse.
many thanks for coming along
I’m from North Yorkshire I love your walks, I’m disabled so I feel like I’m walking around London, my mother was born in London thank you for such interesting adventures
River detective! I like the idea of you being stalked by Thames Water - they want to keep the river secret! The first part was my area - my brother and I used to play with some children in Bisterne Avenue. They were always digging tunnels in the back garden so you could roll a ball from one end to the other. (Except it always got stuck somewhere!) My first school was in Wood Street and I had my appendix removed in Whipps Cross Hospital. Even though I left there in 1955 when I was 5 my memory of the area is very vivid. I remember going to Sunday School in Shernhall Methodist Church - a huge (it seemed to me) Gothic building but it doesn't seem to exist anymore. I couldn't find it when I went back in the 1980's.
Lovely mystery hunting... Very good to read the land and the way people of the past were forced to respect the river by not building on them or in a special way...
John
I moved to Greenway avenue in 1979. In the early 1980s Thames water dug up the road from wood st station to the cricket club and buried a very large sewer pipe with 2 large tanks at both end.
Greenway avenue no longer floods. But in the recent heavy rains Wood st flooded from the station to the pig and whistle pub.
I REALLY DO NEED A DRINK NOW. WONDERFUL PRESENTATION
Many thanks
"This is one of my favourite electricity substations in the whole of London". And with that, I am fully converted. What could be better than settling down to enjoy the soothing narration and expert guidance of someone so conscious of the spirit of location, of the lost history and beauty in what the everyday folk might call mundane.
Recollections of memories working back in the 80s a couple of days a week in Hoe Street and spent lunch time and evening walks around Walthamstow
Thanks for sharing the magic. SMILES 👍🇬🇧👌
Brilliant - loved this one John! I can't help noticing things like valleys and gaps in buildings now!
Yes we also had a river at Amityville - wow lovely to visit where our prince of light and rainbow fairy lived with their Tao father lovely mum .
Love film studio in Walt. Fernando -it really is the stuff of your father’s dreams -ha .
It’s taken me almost a week to find the time to settle down in front of this film and it was worth the wait. The blue shack on Marlow Road and the frontage of the covered market were particular highlights for me.
I had to smile at 36:30 at the bold newspaper statement, “where the Fillebrook will flow”. For a few lifetimes perhaps. Oh, the arrogance. Cheers 👍🏼
Walthamstow my Birth place & Whipps Cross Hospital, where my (first) daugter was born in 82 ; ) Don't time fly John good luck.
My mother grew up in Greenway Ave and they had a pond in the back garden fed by a natural spring.
Takes me back John.I lived in the flats in Morgan Ave that overlooked the cricket ground at the top of Buck walk until I got married in the early 70`s.
They were built at about the same time as Hainault Court. My parents moved in in 1938.
The open ground off Forest Rise was called The Dip`s by we kid`s . On the left by Morgan Ave was the smallest and was always flooded.The dip on the right between Forest Rise and The Woodford New Rd was the biggest,and a wonderful safe play area for us. That big old oak tree was on top of the slope and we used to hang a rope over the branch on the right and make a swing that took me about 15 feet high. The other dip over the main rd had a flat bottom and there was an improvised cycle speedway track. In the late 50`s the council filled them all in,and that`s the flat nothing you see now???
In Bistern Ave where the flat`s (built 1958/9) was The Walthamstow Ensign small bore rifle club.The council moved us to a site in Lowhall Water treatment Work`s off Markhouse Rd.
I went to school at Joseph Barratt school (then renamed Warwick Sec )in Brook Rd The Manual Instruction Centre was where we did woodworking lessons.
In the middle of the Wipps Cross roundabout were underground public toilet`s that were closed many years ago possibly for economic or "Cottaging" issues or a bit of both?
Sorry if I`m a bit long winded,but I spent my early life round there,and so much has changed.
👍thanks Anthony
Another engrossing vignette of your rambling life. This video brought back memories of my grandad who worked for the Metropolitan Water Board from the late 40s until his retirement in 1969, covering all areas around east London and eventually becoming 'assistant turncock' in and around Enfield in the late 50s. We often walked around his old east London manor and I can distinctly remember him telling me that we were walking above hidden rivers. What a source of information he could have been!
In memory of John Agace 1903-1990
Thank you John. Most interesting to an Old Leytonian now living in Western Australia. And there are plenty of hidden water courses in our beautiful suburb of Bayswater.
Hi John. I lived at 1 Woodstock Road for the first seventeen odd years of my life, with this part of Epping Forest as my playground as a youngster. My grandparents are buried in St. Peter's church yard. I have been back to Walthamstow several times (even got to go back into the old house once - in 2007 - it was being renovated). I really enjoy all of your informative walks and talks, but this one was very special to me. Thank you; love your work. I've lived mainly in Auckland N.Z. since 1966. (btw, the Flats in Bisterne Avenue used to be a rifle range back in the 50's and 60's; probably longer).
Thanks John, being born and bred in Walthamstow and knowing all of the walk, I really enjoyed this.
Loved this video.
Your enthusiasm is immense.
thanks so much Little Acorns
Currently sitting in the Southern Highlands in NSW Australia. I spent from 1979 til 2011 living in Walthamstow, the River Lea was the main area to play growing up as a child in the 80's the fields white hill etc, all been built on now... changed so much around the Wood Street area.
Go to Chelmsford Road Leytonstone off Fillebrook rd. Walk down the hill to the bottom and in the middle of the road is a grate. You can hear the brook flow below. Your welcome. I understand from our house title deeds that the land on which the brook flowed belonged to the Earl of Mornington. If you can find it online or at Vestry House Museum/Leytonstone Library there exists a black and white photograph of the brook before it was built over.
You bought a computer mouse from Argos? Argos, the hundred eyed giant? Argos, the guardian of Io, herself the daughter of Inachus? Inachus the river god? That was a highly auspicious purchase. A fitting tribute to the temple of hidden waters.
fantastic Thomas
Owned by the barclay family, neighbours of mine
How it has changed round Wood St, funny you went down Brooke Rd as I was born only a little way up Barret Rd. I remember in the late 1960's Brooke road flooded and of course being kids we watched the fire brigade helping. Then all of a sudden the water just went down and from what I can remember someone told me there was some sort of pump system for those drains. How true I do not know as it was long ago. Seeing the old school there as well. In the years I lived there I never knew there was a buried river at all. Great video walk and bringing back lots of memories of when I lived there.
I am all the better for your upload,. Makes my Sunday evening complete. True Story.
Me too. Back to the Sunday dinnertime slot. Lovely.
That’s wonderful to hear Julie and Rob
John your videos are addictive. My legs are aching from the virtual miles covered tramping along the streets of London and beyond which it would seem are paved with gold. If only I could convert the miles covered into real steps I would be clocking up well over 10000 steps per day. Thanks again your work is brilliant and indispensable.
Thank you so much Peter
The Cricket field & Epping Forest was my playground in the 1950's.
My friends used to live in Walthamstow in Fulbourne Road, I used to go there often. Such good memories of that neighbourhood, walking around all those shops around Wood Street and the adjacent roads.
Really enjoyed this John. I think you were right about the Rising Sun pond ( the bull rush pond) not being the source. I believe this pond was fed by a leak from one of reservoirs at water works pumping station. They rebuilt the reservoir and the ponds water level dropped. Prior to the level dropping you could hire paddle boats. As a child I work my Summer holiday there for 50p a day
Thanks John, So interesting 🤨
The Rising Sun Pond takes me back. I spent many enjoyable days of the School holidays in the 1950's fishing there, pretty sure there wasn't any fish in there but happy days.
@@w75wellsy59 There were fish in there. I caught some in the sixties
A wonderful video and this curious lady here is very happy she messaged you. Who knows what lies beneath our streets. Hidden treasures! The Fillibrook obviously does not want to stay hidden!
Omg this is so exciting!! I lived on Fulbourne Road (end of wood street) for 30 years, only moved away 8 months ago…. And I had no idea there was a lost river in the area! Seeing you explore a place so familiar to me, with such excitement has actually put a lump in my throat 😭 I suddenly miss home
Good one John!
another great local walk ty John
Absolutely enthralling, just loving this video….
Brilliant and enthusiastic as usual.... Great video
absolutely marvellous. Thanks so much ! really cheered me up
Excellent video as always John, Thanks
Excellent and so interesting.
Thank you John! 🙂👍
One of your best videos. Fascinating
John, because of you, whenever I now see some standing water in my local park, I am convinced it's the source of a lost river, so I say a prayer and hurl a dedicatory can of Tyskie into it....
Brilliant David
Thank you John I was Born in Fullbourne road at the lower end of wood street in 1956 as was my father going back to 1936
It’s a great area Dave
Well worth the wait!!
Brilliant and fascinating as always young Mr Rogers. Thank you.
Wonderful stuff!! Enjoyed the walk with it's fascinating routes and intriguing discoveries along the way!
Brilliant film John! A great way to start the week 😊👍🏼
This detective story was much better than any Agatha Christy film John, loved every minute of this video, thanks so much 🙏
I love your walks John and the running commentary.Thanks as always.
Great video!! Like your optimism 👍🏼👍🏼 I’m reading your book, The Other London, it’s great read if any viewers want more of John! 😀👍🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Brilliant many thanks indeed
Hi Just found your video's, I lived in the area until my 20's and they have brought back happy memories of the area. We lived in Theydon Street in the 1950's one day the flats at the end of the street were having some maintenance work done and they had to taken the floorboards up under these quite away down was running water, we were invited to take a look and I can remember us kids dropping stones down to hear the splash. I wonder if this was the Fillebrook River running underneath them.
Fascinating as ever sir, great content.
very interesting, thanks John
I really enjoyed this walk. Thank you so much.
Great to hear Sally
A great video,always love your river hunting, thanks for your posts it helps to keep us sane through these strange times
Love your walks John and your back in the home town 👍
Another gem, sir! Thank you...
Thanks Phil
Brilliant video again John, I love these explorations and your reading of the land is amazing. Stay safe 🙂😷
Another very interesting walk, thank you John. Happy Imbolc 💚
The temple on the confluence of the rivers. That put me in a good mood for the weekend. Thank you, John.
Thanks John, thoroughly enjoyed the walk , Cheers mate...
Thanks Ralph
Thanks, I enjoyed that.
Another great video John, absolutely fascinating and inspirational, love your term street irons for gully gratings and manhole covers, i've gathered loads of pics of these recently on my wanderings, something i find fascinating, take care John and looking forward to the next one, "wherever that may be"
So Look forward to these Sunday night videos John excellent stuff as always 👍🏻
Cheers Pootle
Thank you John for yet another great, informative film. Wonderful to just forget about lockdown and walk along with you, albeit from indoors. Thank you.
infectious...as ever!
Grew up in Walthamstow . Your video brought back many great memories .
Love it John,i was born in Walthamstow.
As a Grove Green Ward resident, I found this very interesting.
hi Henry, remember me,Helen from Dalston library! I always watch these videos,he's such an enthusiastic man.
That was fun!!!! Thank YOU!!!!!
Enthralling, thank you so much. I was as excited as you, every step of the way.
great video john...u are a human water diviner
Ha, thanks Brian
Thank you John armchair sleuthing , cup of coffee in hand , walking vicariously as usual . Happy Imbolc quite fitting for these veins of of the water that give us life xxx
Happy Imbolc 💚
@@ShireWitch Blessings to You and Yours xxx
Happy Imbolc Morrigan - Spring is on its way
@@JohnRogersWalks I’m
So pleased xxx
Excellent video! I saw you walk down my old street Lytton Road and pass the house that I used to live in before moving to Toronto, Canada. Very nostalgic for me! Thanks!!
Yes good to see the vid up.looked forward to.this love your River hunting Sir
Cheers Stephen
I love the word “confluence” I’m not sure if I had heard of it much before watching your lovely films. One of the many things you have introduced to me. 🙏
How deep are the rivers, under the buildings and roads, it never crossed my mind that there you natural rivers flowing beneath us, only ones in tubes and such.
Super video again, John, looking forwards to your next video of...."Where ever that may be"..
good evening John looking forward to this one
hope you enjoyed it Daniel
Nice one John
I live in Walthamstow so great to see all these areas, very interesting.
Smile alert! He’s back for a walk 🙂👍🏻
This is wonderful stuff !
Thanks Gareth
I am still loving your walks just watched ," Ghosts of Epping Forests"it reminded me about that lovely smell of a forest when it has been raining , I swear I could smell it as you walked in the rain.LOVE IT " keep on walking" be safe
Great to join you on that walk John. There was some real detective work there!
Thanks Ian
Thanks for another lovely trip along a lost river 👍🏼☕️🧁
Thanks David
John many congratulations on another excellent educating video. I can't recall the amount of times I have walked down Peterborough Road and then into Clare Road and never even realised about the lost river ? In my journeys up and down Forest Road I like you have always been a huge admirer of the Sub Station.
Excellent John. Thank you
Thanks David
Thanks John. The streets of my youth, little did I know of what lurked beneath. Fascinating.
Your knowledge is wonderfully extensive and your passion is infectious and uplifting which is much needed in these difficult times. 🙏🌞
That was a great adventure there John. You’ve got me in the mood for secret river hunting.😎👍
Many thanks Jag - look forward to seeing your river hunting vids
Really nice to bump into you the other day. Hope I didn’t disturb your recording!! Didn’t think at the time!
I'm hooked on your channel John , Sunday's don't come quick enough. Thank u and keep sharing your passion.
Thanks very much Chris
I love your river hunting films and this one was filled with so much mystery and imagination and gripped like a who dunnit story. All clues pointed to the Filleybrooke another film I really enjoyed. Thanks John 😊👍
I live in Los Angeles and most of our rivers have been channelized so it hasn't been hidden, just channeled with concrete. There's been efforts to revitalize the rivers by returning them back to natural river beds.