The Saddest River in London?

The route to the station on the commute lies along a long spur of high ground that falls away to the east from the Great North Road, gradually declining in height to reach the waters of Pymmes Brook.  To the North the land falls away to a brook with no name.  This rises on the North Middlesex Golf Course and up in North Finchley, going underground at Friern Barnet.  To the South the land falls away to the North Circular Road (NCR), which hereabouts runs in the valley of the Bounds Green Brook.

On a bright but greying afternoon, during the second national lock down (to protect against Covid-19) this brook is located, at the bottom of Colney Hatch Lane.  It returns to light here after passing under the road, running sprightly and clear, culverted in concrete, more like a sluice from a reservoir.  This is not the source.  The latest Ordnance Survey map suggests this is up to the west, in the Glebe Lands where the Great North Road and NCR diverge.  The noise from the roads is reduced down here, but in keeping with the roadside environment, the pollution from solid detritus is thick on the ground.  Bottles and cans and crisp packets; remnants of a party, perhaps.  The path beside the brook could be fought through, but the footway beside the NCR is easier.  The brook is soon back in view, this time within natural banks as it wends its way toward Friern Bridge Retail Park.  Near the railway speeding trains from Kings Cross to Scotland the brook is lost, going underground.  Even the 1898 map shows this.  It disappears!

The old map shows the brook passing through empty fields.  The terrain is no longer empty.  The brook sits below the level of the NCR and here it is filthy, backed by industrial units and a road that seems to get nowhere fast.  Stop and start, stop and stop and oh, “I fucking hate driving.”  Filthy water, the banks strewn with Calor gas cylinders, split bags of domestic rubbish and sadly the remnants of shelters used by homeless people.  A man sits against an electrical box, silent, crutch in hand.  He’s been seen before.  Sometimes on the High Road, N12.  Sometimes begging at the junction of the NCR with Bowes Road, N11.

Before Bowes Road, in Milton Grove, a fly tipped sofa and armchairs marked the walk.  The filth level had not relented and a second man sat amongst it on his mobile phone.  At this point the NCR turns east and the route to Pymmes Brook carries on to the north-east.  There is a maker here as well.  Away from the NCR there is a hint of North London suburban civility.  Parents waited for children outside of schools, dog walkers chatted - not socially distanced outside the park.

The confluence of the Bounds Green Brook with Pymmes Brook  was met.  The former had broadened out, unseen, behind the respectable suburbs and met the larger brook square on.  The concrete is deep here and railings provided by the Environment Agency (whose record on river pollution is appalling) prevent access.  Together the little brooks make their way to the wider River Lea at Edmonton.