Although it is known as one Of London’s lost rivers, the Westbourne River has not really disappeared. We know exactly where it is: it flows through a pipe at Sloane Square tube station on the District and Circle lines of the London Underground.

London was once crisscrossed by numerous small rivers that were tributaries of the Thames. As the city grew into a huge metropolis, many of these waterways were built over or diverted. The Westbourne was one of these rivers. It originally rose in Hampstead Heath, then flowed through Hampstead, Kilburn, Paddington, Hyde Park and Knightsbridge, and finally flowed into the Thames at Chelsea. In 1730, a dam was built across the Westbourne in Hyde Park, creating the artificial Serpentine lake. However, as the water became increasingly polluted over time, it was eventually diverted into a pipe.

When Sloane Square Station was built in the 1860s, the presence of the River Westbourne posed a challenge. A large iron pipe was suspended above the tracks and platforms to act as a water conduit. The station opened in December 1868 and this pipe, enclosed in a green culvert, is still there today. It even survived the bomb damage the station suffered in World War II.