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Today - having previously walked the #Fleet, the #Effra, the #Tyburn, the #Westbourne & the #Wandle - we are planning to walk London's shortest but most formative lost river: the #Walbrook
London was founded by the Romans in the river-valley of the #Walbrook, between Ludgate Hill & Cornhill. The river flowed through the centre of Londinium, & - fortunately for archaeologists - was used by the city's inhabitants as a dumping ground for all kinds of rubbish.
The earliest mention of the #Walbrook was in 1086, in a charter issued by William I, where it is referred to as “wylrithe”, Old English for “spring rivulet”. Etymologists debate whether 'Walbrook' derives from this, or from 'Wealhbroc': 'the brook of the Foreigners/Britons/Welsh'
To Hampstead, there to start tracing the line of the #Westbourne, from Whitestone Pond to the Chelsea Embankment. 
Like the Tyburn & the Fleet, the #Westbourne rises at Whitestone Pond, the highest point in inner London. Jack Straw, a leader of the Peasants Revolt beacon was captured here, a beacon warned of the Spanish Armada, & it was a notorious haunt of highwaymen when known as Horse Pond
This was once Branch Hill Pond, which Constable painted back in 1825, when London was poised like a tsunami waiting to break over the rural environs of Hampstead... #Westbourne
