Ghost River Fleet, The Prince Arthur, Camden, London, UK on 1st August 2026 – by Tash Walker
“I woke early on Saturday morning to head to Camden, and then Farringdon, to record the sounds of the River Fleet. It is one of London’s twenty ghost rivers. Ghost rivers are watercourses that once ran through the city in the open air and were later buried: culverted, paved over, built upon, redirected into pipes and drains beneath streets that no longer show any trace of them. They are still there. Still flowing. Just hidden.
I’ve been thinking about them a lot recently, in light of what’s happening to this world we’re in, and the damage humans have done, building concrete structures on top of a flowing river being just one small, telling example.
Despite it being 7.30am on a Saturday, you can hear a car alarm going off somewhere nearby, a reminder that this river runs beneath a city that has mostly forgotten it’s there. But then, as I lowered my recorder into the drain, the sound of the river crashed forth. A power and a trickle, so strong even in these hot summer days. I tried to listen, and to hear what it was saying.”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS