Supplementary reading

[flemmings]

I wanted Ackroyd's London Under last January, to see if it would shed some light on the lost rivers of London. I have it now. It has a chapter or two on buried rivers, but the detail (such as it is-- a thin volume, this) is saved for sewers and train tunnels. It thus perfectly complements Whispers Underground. To say nothing of A Madness of Angels. And probably the last Felix Castor as well, but that one I've already forgotten. However it doesn't tell me nearly enough about those dead and buried rivers, and neither does wikipedia. I want something with maps, and a lot more pictures than Ackroyd provides.

Frances Hardinge's Verdigris Deep (aka Well Witched) is not supplement but synchronicity. Its atmosphere puts it with 100 Demons, even if Ackroyd also has a chapter on wells and Ima does not. Or not in 21. She *must* have done a well story, in fact, but all I can recall offhand is the house with the telephone cord that goes down a trapdoor. Which I should reread because I've forgotten what the point of that story was. Felonious and homicidal relatives, wasn't it?

Comments

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

I wonder if THIS (http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/285-londons-lost-rivers?page=all) helps at all.

Have a good weekend dear.

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

I also found this article from the Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/london/9197314/Londons-lost-rivers-the-hidden-history-of-the-citys-buried-waterways.html)

It mentions the same waterways, with different words. It also mentions the Darent(Darenth?) but doesn't expand on that. I'm only familiar with the part that flows through the village my aunt and uncle live in. It fed the papermill where all the menfolk, would go to work at, even until as recent as when my uncle was a young lad. The Mill has now been converted to modern apartments.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Those are both *very* helpful, especially the articles with pictures linked from the Telegraph. I'm beginning to get an idea how this works.

We have streams here that went underground, but the result is that you can't build very deep in the adjacent areas, which (hurrah!) put paid to more than one highrise proposal near where I grew up. I wondered how London survived above its buried rivers. Turns out the rivers became sewers, often enough, covered over most carefully and rather early on. Also that London has been sinking into its clay since whenever it started, and like Ankh-Morpork, is now a city built on a city.