WORKSHOP with the Guardian Newsroom

Lost Rivers project with Christopher Hatton School

During September 2004, Fluid are working with the Guardian Newsroom to run a project with local school, Christopher Hatton School. The project involves several workshops and a walk, throughout which pupils will explore a selection of topics, including 'Crime and Punishment', 'Entertainment' and 'Industry'.

BEACH

The return of the Fleet Beach - In Clerkenwell

For the fist time in over 400 hundred years, Londoners can enjoy the delights of bathing on the beach in the valley of the Fleet in Clerkenwell. Forty tonnes of sand complete with mini-river, has been spread on Vine Street Bridge, to commemorate the lost river Fleet that still runs beneath the bridge. The beach installation is open to the public 24hrs a day, and provides a new public space in the heart of the city, where before there were only 9 car parking bays.

WALK

In search of the lost river, its springs and the wells of Clerkenwell

A walk around Clerkenwell with Diana Clements on Monday 28 June

Have you ever stopped to think why London is built where it is? You have heard of Fleet street; are you aware that it is named after the lost river that runs beneath the streets of Clerkenwell?
On this walk we went in search of evidence of this lost river and how the geology of the area has dictated the position of the springs that flow into it.
We imagined a time when the Fleet meandered through fields accompanied by the sounds of the 'clacking of mills' from the monastery gardens.
We saw how later, Londoners came out to Islington to take the air and refresh themselves in the thriving 'tea gardens' that grew up around the wells. We will discuss the importance of the brewing and distilling industries of the area, so close to Smithfield Market, and how the inevitable pollution led to the covering of the Fleet.

Diana Clements is a geologist who currently works in the Department of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum. She also runs courses and field trips for the Adult Education Department. In 1997 she presented an exhibition at the Islington Museum 'Beneath our Feet: The Geology of Islington'. Her current area of research is on 'the lost rivers' of London.

For more information mail Diana to: diana@pdms.demon.co.uk

Pleasure Gardens of the Imagination (A Fleet Pub Walk)

The Fleet was once known as the River of Wells, due to the number of pleasure gardens and springs that marked its route. On 26th June writer and illustrator Tim Bradford (author of The Groundwater Diaries) walked from Kings Cross Station to the Thames, taking in some of the modern day versions of the old pleasure gardens - pubs. And some of the landmarks he loves, such as the mystical lost boozer where he watched England beat Holland 4-1 at Euro 96. Inevitably there were detours. This walk found the path of least resistance as it meanders down through the Fleet valley.

This was not a history tour, but a contemporary interactive interpretation of the pleasure garden experience*. In fact, Tim hoped and found that he spent more time listening to other peoples' stores than having to come up with his own.

Tim brought along worksheets for people to write (or draw) their experiences in these pubs. Some handed them in at the end to be put up on a website of the event. Others kept them and may have stuck them on their wall, put them in a shoe box under the stairs or published them themselves. The walk also took in the interactive 'Discovering the Fleet - London's Lost Rivers' exhibition on Vine Street Bridge, where visitors were invited to describe their visions for London's Rivers.

Oh, and we got pleasantly pissed along the way.

For The Groundwater Diaries www.thesmoke.net/gd