please empty your brain below

Great idea DG. What about the New River - does that count?
The River Ching is quite nice and you can do quite a bit of Dagenham Brook (actually in Leyton) but they are both tributaries.

Having run alongside the River Roding many a time I would say that google maps is unhelpful. You can pick it up off the Romford Road in Ilford just past the bridge over it (there is a sign I believe for the Roding valley way) and get all the way to Debden. There is a slight detour at Buckhurst Hill where the path kind of dies. At Debden by the M11 you can take a large diversion via Abridge Road (no pavement and very fast cars) to pick the river up again at Abridge but I don't think there's an actual path so you'd have to stick to the parallel road.
Yes, yes, yes - rivers

I left your lovely city many decades ago, and one amazing change coming back has been the use of rivers and canals

I grew up quite close to the Grand Union (Brentford Branch), but had no idea it was there.

Now it looks like 'very desirable' housing.

On a later return we lived next to an abandoned waste called 'City Road Basin' - now look at it !

Wouldn't it be a lovely to arrive at Heathrow T5 and have signage 'CrossRail, Underground, Bus, Taxi, car pickup' and 'Boat- Paddington, Birmingam, Oxford'

And it's not that silly - the River Colne crosses the Grand Union (Slough Branch), and could be canalised all the way to T5

Could also go through the Wraysbury gravel pits to join the Thames, and on to Windsor, Oxford and 'the West'.

Could the River Crane be 'canalised' - go by boat or walk from Uxbridge, Hatton Cross, Twickenham and join the Thames

Why should the east get all the fun with the opening up of the Lea Valley ?
A good idea. I was also looking for the non-lost rivers as something to explore but as you say, there seems to be plenty of information about the lost rivers but not existing ones.
I was planning to walk the River Quaggy next week but found it difficult to find the exact course so have given up on the idea.
Planning in advance. How about spending a defined amount of time with each and every separate 'ethnic minority community' across London. Should keep you going for years.
I would have thought you were enough of a completist DG to tackle them all?! Indeed I discovered in counting them that you have exactly one per week this year (52).

You'll have a fairly nice walk doing the Pymmes Brook I think.
And we can waste hours in pointless discussion about whether it should be The Ravensbourne or the River Ravensbourne. Happy days coming along.
Good theme DG. Looking forward to another year of interesting posts.
I'm just waiting for the weather to get a bit dryer again before I go in search of the rest of the Wantz Stream.

I did investigate some of it a few years back, but didn't post everything. I shall do better this year.
What about the River Rom which becomes the Beam at its confluence with the Ravensbourne in Havering? I've run parts of them and they're OK.

Talking of running, maybe try visiting every parkrun in London on a Saturday morning. You might even get a t-shirt!
Looking forward to this. I hope to follow in your foot steps on the highlights.
The Yeading Brook from Harrow (Headstone Manor) to where it joins the Crane at Cranford Park and on to the Thames at Isleworth is a lovely walk. We did it in 3 sections over consecutive months a couple of years ago, with a group run by Hillingdon. I think the funding must have been cut now though, as I've not seen any events since.

The Pinn is my next project, and I've always wanted to follow the Brent, so I'll be eagerly anticipating your posts!
Your photos in 2007 (Wandle) were so tiny :)
And your posts very short.
How do you find these things? Despite having lived in the area for twenty-eight years, and the presence of Latchmere Road, Latchmere Lane, Latchmere School, and Latchmere House remand centre, I had never heard of the Latchmere Stream. I am intrigued!

You asked for suggestions for misplacings or omissions. Having now looked it up on the Internet, I would suggest the Latchmere is innappropriately partnered with the Longford, (which is on the other side of the Thames, and debouches into it several miles upstream).
The Latchmere is a tributary of the Sudbrook, which is missing from your listing. If you pair the Beverley with its tributary the Pyl you can create a spare box for the Sudbrook and Latchmere.
You might want to start with the Dollis Valley Greenwalk - the path alongside Dollis Brook (designed to link the Capital Ring and the London Loop) is in good shape at the moment, I've walked it a couple of times in the last fortnight.
There's also the Kid Brook, which gives its name to Kidbrooke in SE London. It supplies a pond near Casterbridge Road, goes under something called Brookway and winds round the back of houses until eventually it joins the Quaggy.
DG, Fox mentioned that Google Maps has its limitations.

Might I suggest that you give the OpenStreetMap (www.openstreetmap.org) a look, as sometimes it has more accurate and detailed mapping. The following example might show the place where Fox mentions the path "...kind of dies.", that is, where it departs from the river to connect with Lower Queens Road instead.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/51.62434/0.05074
Tetramesh, if you want some information about the Quaggy River, there's plenty here ... photos and maps too!
http://www.qwag.org.uk/home/
Tony
The Bonesgate tributary is not far from where I live so I claim the 10 points, it's just a shame that the local pub "the Bonesgate" was renamed the "the William Bourne" a few years ago for no apparent reason!

Shame the River Mole doesn't quite meet your criteria as it has some lovely walking.
OK, Sudbrook and Kid Brook have gone in, ta.

And I've taken out the Longford River and the Duke of Northumberland's River because they're artificial (which is also the reason why the New River isn't included).

Nicks, the Mole could be made to count at a (very long) stretch - the southern flank of Kingston's Telegraph Hill (which DG visited in http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/london-borough-tops-outer-south.html) drains over the Surrey border into Pachesham Lake, which empties into the Mole outside Leatherhead.

And a mile or so to the north Barwell Lake, on the west flank of Winey Hill, empties into the Rythe, which has some rural quality before it dives into suburbia at Thames Ditton.
Surely the Frays is also artificial (or at least heavily diverted/canalised) and so ripe for disqualification?
River peck, or The Beck? I'm going to get found out aren't I...
Canalised is not the same as artificial. After all, just about all the banks of the Thames through central London are not the original marshy ones.

An artificial river is simply one that, before humans intervened, did not exist.
DG - Seeing as you're a son of Croxley, are you not including the Rivers Gade and Chess, if only for sentimental reasons?

dg writes: Neither are in London, so not this year. But I have already walked the Chess.
The Beck is quite visable and runs through woodland and then Kelsey Park which must be one of the nicest parks in London. Worth including.
Hooray for rivers. Love them.
Other watercourses of interest:
Leeging Beech Gutter, Hadley Wood
Houndsden Gutter, Southgate Piccadilly Line viaduct
Saddlers Mill Brook, Bush Hill Park and Edmonton.
And for an alternative take on 'Rivers of London', you might check out Ben Aaronovitch's engaging and witty magical alternative London novel, and its sequels.

dg writes: A fine set of books. See here...
What about the Caterham Bourne? Not always there, but has made its presence known and now has some hefty permanent flood defences in place near the A22 just south of Whyteleafe South (zone 6). Ends up in the Wandle, I think.










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