The (very) latest exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands is called Secret Rivers.
It's mainly about London's lost rivers, but several unburied rivers get a look in too, so best to think of this as a roomful of fluvial secrets. The Thames features early on, allowing the curators to present peculiar items mudlarked from the river, but then they dive on to the Walbrook, Fleet, Neckinger etc where your interest will be truly piqued. A bishop beating the bounds really did wear that unrecycled plastic cape. This three-hole wooden seat really was once used as part of a latrine above above the Fleet. That toy sailboat was actually recovered from former pleasure garden lakes in Chelsea fed by the Westbourne. And that Oscar-winning musical was indeed partly set in a rookery along the Neckinger.
A video wall featuring the Fleet sewer is the largest exhibit at the centre of the gallery, confirming the river's psychogeographic pre-eminence. On the back wall maps and posters from the Effra Redevelopment Agency and Tyburn Angling Society illustrate not-entirely-practical daylighting projects. Elsewhere an impressively large number of artistic interpretations have been included, including soundmaps, blurry films, over-exposed Polaroids and a blue ribbon that once threaded its way down the Walbrook. What's really nice about the exhibition is the eclectic selection of artefacts, that and the in-depth information posted up alongside.
As someone who's blogged a lot about lost rivers, I wish similar maps had been available years ago. Not only can you see where the Fleet, Tyburn, and Neckinger go, road by road, but there's also a huge map by the entrance displaying the whole shebang. Top tip - if you'd like to take a copy home it's printed on the back of the Top Trumps freebie, so make sure you never perforate the cards to play. Drop by sometime before the end of October, perhaps timing your visit for one of several events scheduled over the summer, including a special 'Liquid Late' this Thursday with special guest Ben Aaronovitch.
