Thorney Tales (2) - The River Tyburn
Thorney Island was formed thousands of years ago by the interaction of the Thames with the Tyburn, one of London's forgotten rivers. The Tyburn still exists today springing, like the Westbourne and the Fleet, from the Hampstead Hills, and although it soon gets lost in Sir Joseph Bazalgette's amazing sewer system it is still possible to chart its subterranean meanderings. From Hampstead it flows down to Regent's Park, crossing the canal in a pipe. It is then carried in another pipe through Baker Street station and then southwards where it flows under Oxford Street through Green Park and under Buckingham Palace where it splits into two. One channel flows goes towards Tothill Street and the other passes very close to the present Victoria Palace theatre before passing under Kings' Scholars' Passage (its exact historic route) then under Vauxhall Bridge Road and along Tachbrook Street. It empties itself into the Thames a few hundred yards west of Vauxhall Bridge where the exit and the cottage of the sluice gate keeper can still be seen.