River_Heathwall

River Heathwall

River Heathwall

Covered river in London, England

The River Heathwall, more often known as the Heathwall Sewer,[1][2] Heathwall Ditch or Heathwall Mill Pond[3] was a set of field drainage ditches and a large mill pond in Battersea, London. It had two outlets into the tidal Thames and its inland section roughly followed Wandsworth Road. Its eastern outlet was at Nine Elms.[4]

Quick Facts Basin features ...

The Greenwoods' map of 1827 confirms the mill pond served a tide mill, harnessing of the locally great tidal energy.[5] The generic prototype may have such a mill in the nascent City of London, in Roman Britain.[6]

The river was covered in 1866, as was the nearby Falconbrook. Pumping stations were added for the drainage of northern Battersea and to allow for widespread development.[1][7] Heathwall Pumping Station is now part of the Thames Tideway Scheme.[8]

Further reading

  • Jon Newman, The Heathwall: Battersea's Buried River (2019, Backwater Books ISBN 9781916129108)

References

  1. [1]
    Institution of Civil Engineers (1875). Minutes of proceedings. p. 162.
  2. [2]
    Metropolitan Board of Works (1882). Minutes of proceedings. p. 746.
  3. [3]
    Metcalf, Priscilla (1972). Victorian London. New York, Praeger. p. 82.
  4. [4]
    "The Lost River Of London You've Never Heard Of: The Heathwall". Londonist. 25 November 2019.
  5. [5]
    Christopher and John Greenwood's's 8 inches to the mile 6 sheet map, 1827
  6. [6]
    Spain, Rob: "A possible Roman Tide Mill", Paper submitted to the Kent Archaeological Society
  7. [7]
    "The Junction History". VisitClaphamJunction.com.
  8. [8]
    "Heathwall Pumping Station". Bazalgette Tunnel Limited.

51.483°N 0.136°W / 51.483; -0.136
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article River_Heathwall, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.