Westbourne

The Westbourne is a small river in London that now flows underground as a sewer. It rises in Hampstead and Brondesbury Park before passing through Kilburn, Bayswater, Hyde Park, Chelsea and Sloane Square. The river gave its name to Kilburn and Bayswater long before the areas were built up. The river once supplied drinking water to London. In the 15th century conduits carried its water into the City. Later it became a sewer, and in the 19th century engineers turned it into a covered drain. Parts of this Victorian sewer can still be seen above the platforms at Sloane Square tube station. The Westbourne shaped Hyde Park when Queen Caroline dammed it in 1730 to create the Serpentine. The lake’s ornate footbridge and the park’s paths follow the old watercourse. Above ground, the river’s name lives on in streets such as Westbourne Grove and in the memory of a lost river beneath the city.