London’s Lost Rivers: a walker’s guide Volume 2
London’s Lost Rivers: a walker’s guide Volume 2
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伦敦失落的河流：步行者指南第 2 卷
DOI：
10.1080/01433768.2021.1999033
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发表时间：
2021
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Carry van Lieshout
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Carry van Lieshout
2020 年初，我写的《失落的河流，沃克指南》，那一年的大部分时间我都在一个封闭校园的部门邮局里度过。当我最终在 2021 年初接触到这本书时，该国正深入实施另一波 Covid 19 措施。呆在家里的命令似乎不利于查看步行指南，包括覆盖伦敦大部分地区的步行指南。因此，想象一下，当我发现其中一条步道的起点离我住的地方不远，一条失落的支流几乎穿过我的后花园时，我有多高兴。 2021 年春天一个阳光明媚的早晨，我终于尝试了这本指南，沿着克劳奇恩德 (Crouch End) 和霍恩西 (Hornsey) 追踪失落的摩泽尔河。正如其标题所示，这本书是作者继伦敦失落河流之后的第二本步行指南。第一卷涵盖了较著名的河流，例如舰队，而本卷则绘制了一些不太为人所知的失落河流。博尔顿有意识地为第二卷选择了“地面上最难探测、最需要向导的河流”（第 viii 页）。这从书中描绘的九条步道的地图中可以明显看出：河流几乎完全被标记为“迷失”，或者完全隐藏在地下，几乎没有可见的地表水。然而，正如本书所示，消失的河流在整个城市景观中留下了它们过去存在的痕迹：从街道名称到行政边界，再到通过排水格栅听到的实际溪流。本书中的九条步道尽可能地追踪失落河流的路线。它们的范围从 1.75 英里到 7.75 英里不等，覆盖伦敦各地，从伦敦市中心 (Cock 和 Pye Ditch) 到最远的 Streatham Hill (Falcon Brook) 和 Acton (Bollo Brook)。标有距离起点和终点最近的车站，以及每条步道终点附近的推荐酒吧。每次步行都会从对失落河流及其历史的概述开始，然后使用沿途的地图和说明来指导步行者。该路线包括对路线所经过区域的历史以及任何有趣特征的描述。这些并不都与河流直接相关，但提供了伦敦当地和社会历史的有趣小插曲。导游步行详细介绍了景观中仍然可以观察到的消失河流的影响。例如，它指出了摩泽尔河最初是如何形成街道后花园的边缘的，这解释了其边界线的摇晃，并显示了花园墙上的砖拱门，这些砖拱门是曾经过河的桥梁的遗迹（第217页）。在许多地方，地名都与水有关，让人想起一条消失的支流的过去。正如博尔顿指出的，消失的河流经常流经“边缘地区”——这些地区开发较晚，因为容易发生洪水（第 202 页）。事实上，在河流曾经流经的一些地势较低的地区，仍然存在洪水风险，指南对此进行了定期提醒。景观中的其他标记是房屋之间的间隙，这些房屋曾经建在当时的河道周围。
Lost Rivers, A Walker’s Guide in early 2020, my review copy spent most of that year in the departmental post room of a locked down campus. When I finally gained access to the book in early 2021, the country was deep into another wave of Covid 19 measures. The order to stay at home did not seem conductive for reviewing a walker’s guide including walks that cover much of London. Imagine my delight, therefore, to discover that one of the walks started not far from where I live, with one lost tributary practically passing through my back garden. A sunny morning in spring 2021 found me finally trying out the guide, tracing the lost River Moselle through Crouch End and Hornsey. This book, as its title suggests, is the author’s second walker’s guide following the lost rivers of London. The first volume covered the more famous ones, such as the Fleet, while this volume charts some of the lesser-known lost rivers. Bolton has consciously selected rivers for Volume 2 ‘that are the hardest to detect above ground, and in most need of a guide’(p. viii). This is evident from the maps illustrating each of the nine walks included in the book: the rivers are almost entirely indicated as ‘lost’, or completely hidden underground, with very little visible surface water. However, as this book shows, the lost rivers have left indications of their past presence all through the urban landscape: from street names to administrative boundaries, to physical streams that are audible through drainage grills. The nine walks in this book trace the courses of lost rivers as closely as possible. They range from 1¾ mile to 7¾ mile, and cover locations across London ranging from central London (Cock and Pye Ditch) to as far afield as Streatham Hill (Falcon Brook) and Acton (Bollo Brook). The nearest stations to the start and finish points are indicated, as well as recommended pubs near the end of each walks. Each walk starts with an overview of the lost river and its history, then guides the walker using maps and descriptions along the route. The route includes descriptions of the history of areas passed on route as well as any interesting features. These are not all directly related to the rivers, but provide interesting vignettes of London’s local and social histories.The guided walks go into great detail on the impact of the lost rivers still observable in the landscape. For instance, it is pointed out how the Moselle originally formed the edge of a street’s back gardens, which explains the wobbling line of their boundaries, and shows the brick arches in a garden wall that were the remains of a bridge once crossing the river (p. 217). In many places the place-names are related to water, recalling the past presence of a lost tributary. As Bolton points out, the lost rivers often run through ‘edge areas’—land that was developed late as it was prone to flooding (p. 202). Indeed, flood risk is still present in some of the lower-lying areas through which the rivers once ran, on which the guide offers regular reminders. Other markers in the landscape that are pointed out are gaps between houses where they were once built around the then-present course of a river.