Sloane Square Tube Station – London, England - Atlas Obscura
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Sloane Square Tube Station

London, England

One of London's lost rivers runs through a pipe over the tracks of this subway station. 

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he River Westbourne flows above the station in a large iron conduit. Nick-D / CC BY-SA 4.0
he River Westbourne flows above the station in a large iron conduit. Nick-D / CC BY-SA 4.0
The River Westbourne running above the platforms of Sloane Square tube station. Ogmios / CC BY-SA 3.0
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Though it’s known as one of the lost rivers of London, the River Westbourne hasn’t actually gone missing. We know right where it is: flowing through a pipe at the Sloane Square tube station, on the District and Circle lines of the London Underground.

London was once crisscrossed by a. number of small rivers, which were tributaries of the Thames. As the city grew into a massive metropolis, many of these waterways were built over or redirected. The Westbourne was one such river. It originally rose on Hampstead Heath, then flowed down through Hampstead, Kilburn, Paddington, Hyde Park, and Knightsbridge, then joined with the Thames at Chelsea. In 1730, a dam was built across the Westbourne at Hyde Park, forming the Serpentine artificial lake. But as the water became more polluted over time, it was eventually rerouted to a pipe.

When the Sloane Square station was being built in the 1860s, the presence of the River Westbourne posed a challenge. A large iron pipe was suspended above the train tracks and platforms to serve as a conduit for the water. The station opened in December 1868 and that pipe, enclosed within a green culvert, remains in place today. It even survived the bomb damage that the station took during World War II.

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The green culvert can be seen above the exits/entrances at the platform level.

public works subways rivers infrastructure transportation water
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