#falconbrook

[londiniumlundene]

Lost London: Walking the Falcon Brook

Note: this walk was completed in early December 2020, before London entered Tier 4 restrictions, and before the start of national lockdown in January 2021.

After the meeting of its Hydburn and Streathbourne branches, the Falcon Brook continues in a north-westerly direction, still running below residential streets, until there is a sudden shift on reaching Northcote Road, where things take on a more distinctly middle-class high street feel. This is the so-called “Nappy Valley”, a line of shops and cafés following the valley carved out by the Falcon Brook between Clapham and Wandsworth Commons. It’s also very busy at weekends (particularly if London has just emerged from Lockdown 2.0 and has yet to experience Tiers 3 or 4…).

Dodging the parents and toddlers out for their dairy-free lattes and organic/gluten-free cakes, as the walker approaches the end of Northcote Road and the start of St John’s Road, another hint of the river emerges. The shops on the western side of the street follow the line of the river, which curves away from the line of the road.

 A more obvious link to the river is found at the Falcon pub; whether it took its name from the river or (like the river itself) from the rising falcon crest of the lords of Battersea Manor is unclear. 

At the same junction as the Falcon, the walker can also see the Edwardian baroque building that was once Arding & Hobbs department store (until recently it was a branch of Debenhams), and the rebuilt Party Superstore, a notable casualty of the 2011 London riots.

The Falcon Brook carries on following the course of Falcon Road, taking it under a large railway bridge adjacent to Clapham Junction station – which was once more appropriately (the station being a mile from the nearest end of Clapham) known as Falcon Bridge. Once under the bridge, the Falcon references come thick and fast, with Falcon Grove, Falcon Terrace, Falcon Glade, and The Falcons estate.

These traces of the river do not last for long though, its route suddenly turns west, joined at this point by another subterranean stream, the Heath Brook, and the underground waters run below tower blocks from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Beyond these it runs underneath the small green space of York Gardens, which is next doors to the Falconbrook Pumping Station, built for handling storm water when the river’s sewer becomes full – flooding from the Falcon Brook is common in this area.

After York Gardens, until the 1960s the walker would have been able to see the mouth of the river as it met the Thames; here it was known as Battersea Creek, and was once used as a dock for the now-closed Price’s Candle Factory, much of which has now been converted into shops and flats. Besides a more modern car showroom, a large green stink pipe reveals the location of the covered river.

A short walk along a footpath besides a landscaped pond (it doesn’t seem to be directly connected to any flowing waters) brings the walker rather suddenly to the Thames; after much of the walk offering little traces of the Falcon Brook, it feels like it is quickly lost again.

[zeig-dich666]

Metal 🤘🏻🎵🤘🏻🎵 Wine 🍷🍾🍷🍾 Repeat 🍷🍾🤘🏻🎵 Falkenbach 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 - Asa Falkenbach (German: [ˈfalkənbax]) is a viking metal group from Germany that is signed to Prophecy Productions. The name means "Falconbrook" in German. Asa is the sixth studio album by the German Viking metal band Falkenbach. It was released in 2013 on Prophecy Productions. #metalmusic #wine #sommelier #metal #metalhead #heavymetal #music #metalband #deathmetal #metalheads #rock #blackmetal #thrashmetal #metalcore #guitar #rockmusic #heavymetalmusic #hardrock #headbanger #guitarist #wine #rocknroll #deathcore #metalfan #band #musician #doommetal #extrememetal #concert #headbanger (at Charlotte, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CVDgK51gXD2/?utm_medium=tumblr

[londiniumlundene]

Lost London: Walking the Falcon Brook Part 1: The Hydeburn

Note: this walk was completed in early December 2020, before London entered Tier 4 restrictions, and the start of national lockdown in January 2021.

The Falcon Brook is a river of many names; even its most common moniker is varyingly given as Falcon Brook, Falconbrook, or just the Falcon. It is thought to have gained this title from the rising falcon crest of the 16th Century St John family, the lords of Battersea Manor. Prior to this, it bore the names of Hidaburna (or variations thereof) and York Brook. To add to the confusion, there are multiple sources for the river; one rises in Streatham Hill and nowadays takes the name Hydeburn, whilst other principle sources rise around Tootting Bec Common and take the (seemingly interchangeable) names of Streathbourne and Woodbourne. The whole set of streams – now flowing entirely underground – is often just known as the Falcon Brook to simplify matters…

I chose to walk the length of the Falcon Brook from its Hydeburn source, starting up in Streatham Hill in the Leigham Court Estate, an interesting collection of houses, maisonettes and flats, many of which are built with Arts and Crafts design and decoration. The start of the Hydeburn is unclear, though a good guess is a set of ponds which once existed in the grounds of the manor house Leigham Court (which gave the current estate its name); these ponds were just to the south of the estate’s St Margaret the Queen church, which makes for a convenient starting point.

The route of the river then winds through a series of residential streets, with the rush of waters being occasionally heard under drain covers in the centre of mini-roundabouts. The Arts and Crafts residences quickly give way to the more typical “Metroland” type semi-detached house of the early 20th Century; this in turn is superseded by modernist blocks of flats as the river approaches the Streatham Hill road.

Crossing this main road, the river is soon amongst the early 20th Century suburbs again; this is a strong theme for much of the early part of this walk. Some greenery is briefly present when the walk runs along the northern edge of Tooting Bec common, but this is soon replaced by more housing.

Another break comes with the Zennor Road Trade Park, a rather grey industrial estate, soon followed by the slightly more visually appealing La Retraite, a Roman Catholic Girls’ School set up in the 1880s by an order of Nuns from Brittany; the school occupies former housing, once home to painter Philip Alexius de László and music hall comedian Dan Leno. It is more of the same suburbia after this though, with a quick look at Balham High Road as the river’s course cuts across.

It is amongst the houses that the Hydeburn part of this walk reaches its conclusion; around the unremarkable junction of Calbourne Road (a river-related name, though not one used elsewhere on the Falcon Brook’s course) and Mayford Road this length of the subterranean river meets with the Streathbourne/Woodbourne branch. The combined streams now begin a more direct path towards the Thames…