River Fleet
| River Fleet | ||
 Estuary of the River Fleet ( Samuel Scott , circa 1750) |
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| Data | ||
| location | London | |
| River system | Thames | |
| Drain over | Thames → North Sea | |
| origin | two headwaters in Hampstead Heath | |
| muzzle | at Blackfriars Bridge in the Thames Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 39 ″ N , 0 ° 6 ′ 16 ″ W 51 ° 30 ′ 39 ″ N , 0 ° 6 ′ 16 ″ W
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The River Fleet is a tributary of the Thames in London , which today flows underground for almost its entire length. Its springs are in Hampstead Heath and feed two ponds that were created in the 18th century to store drinking water. The two source streams unite in the district of Camden Town . The river flows past King's Cross and Farringdon stations and joins the Thames at Blackfriars Bridge .
The upper area of the River Fleet after the union of the source streams was formerly known as Holbourne and gave the district of Holborn its name. The name of the river comes from the Old English holburna (brook in a deep valley) or flēot (mouth).
history
In Anglo-Saxon times, the mouth area, which was almost 100 meters wide at that time, served as a port for merchant ships and fishing boats. Numerous wells were built along the shore and some such as B. Bagnigge Well and Clerkenwell have been awarded healing powers. With the continued growth of the City of London immediately to the east, the river became more and more of a sewer . The water was considered polluted as early as the 13th century. The poorer population settled in the area and Fleet Prison , Newgate Prison and Ludgate Prison were built . Numerous businesses used the hydropower of the Fleet.
After the Great Fire of London in 1666, Christopher Wren suggested widening the river, but this was rejected. Instead, the New Canal was built by 1680, but it was filled in again in 1737. The section between Holborn and Fleet Street was channeled underground, the section to the mouth followed in 1765. The construction of the Regent's Canal in 1812 resulted in the coverage of the River Fleet at King's Cross and Camden. The area near Farringdon Road was covered over during the construction of the Metropolitan Railway in the early 1860s . With the expansion of Hampstead in the 1870s, the topmost area also disappeared underground.
When a new line for the London Underground was planned in the 1970s, the name Fleet Line was provided for this. But in honor of Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee, the name was changed to Jubilee Line in 1977 .
