# Floating Vessels (River Fleet) - Londinium



## dsankt (Jan 26, 2008)

Steve D dropped from the sky into London town wrapped in casual black, crooning to Johnny Cash and as usual grinning teeth from ear to ear. Welcome to Londinium, mecca of the underground river. Eleven in fact, count them on yer fingers there banjo boy. Today we'll be concerned with one: The River Fleet.

The River Fleet is the best known of these rivers, having served as a canal up until 1765. It was the largest of the rivers and the last to be buried. Small topside clues give evidence of its original existence and the sewer it became. We met the familiar face of Loops at the lid, waited for a lull and dropped in.

*Prowling Below*





_Congealed sewerage on the floor and beached toilet paper trailing from the wedge. The tunnels could be blocked by placing wooden beams into the slots either side of the wedge, indicated by the darker bricks. Stone, red brick, yellow brick and black bricks all in one place, London is fucking ridiculous. Lit with a single uberfluro and some gentle technique. Fuji 160._

The Fleet Sewer is confusing enough to give Escher a migraine. I can't possibly describe the interconnected structure but this the most interesting 500m of sewer/drain I've seen. You have (roughly upstream -> downstream):


12ft redbrick tunnel, with a junction into the parallel yellowbrick storm relief sewer known as Wren's Cache.
Two 15ft tall, 6ft wide arched brick tunnels
15ft tall 10ft wide brick tunnel, lots of little side inlets an oddities.
25ft tall brick lozenge with a wooden diversion into a lower level sewer.
Four parallel tunnels (2 stacked on 2) with catwalks and ladders coated in a mixture of tidal filth and grey water.
4 giant iron flaps at the end of each tunnel.
Climb up the ladders and catwalks to find yourself in a series of pedestrian access tunnels. They're standing height and wide enough to talk comfortably. Damp and humid.
These tunnels leads to rooms full of old machinery used to manually operate various floodgates.
The tunnels also drop you into the diverted tunnel, downstream of a floodgate.
Take another pedestrian tunnel and you drop back into the mainline tunnel, downstream of the 4 large flaps mentioned above.
Also in the junction with the 4 flaps are the 2 small flaps at the terminus of the Wren's Cache, the relief tunnel.
These tunnels merge together in a large arched tunnel and continue downstream towards the Thames. By this stage it's all tidal water and nasty to boot.

Built a 3D model in your mind, squire? Good.

*Wren*




_Loops amongst the glowing yellow brick of Wren's cache (Fleet storm relief tunnel). Around the bend are the two flaps which join back into the junction chamber with the Fleet Sewer._

The Thames has a high-low tide differential between 4-7m, meaning it rises rapidly during mid tide. In 30 minutes of shooting the convergence of Wren's Cache and The Fleet the tide rose 1m. Timing is therefore very important, overstay your welcome and you're swimming out, enter too early and you're swimming in. Tides are nothing like this back in Brisbane, fluctuating by at most 2m. Brisbane has the best known tidally affected big drains in Australia so I've just gone from a little bastard tidal city to a big one. All hail the mighty sine curve.

*So Very Pedestrian*




_The comfortable pedestrian tunnels which provide workers access to the floodgate equipment and bypass the flaps._

Upstream is relatively plain but for some bolted concrete tunnel reminiscent of bunker drain. Thin tendrils of minerals drape hair-like from the ceiling (think Sadako from The Ring) making the trek upstream worthwhile. A 2ft side-tunnel terminates at a strange manhole - hinged and rusted but elevated from the ground by about an inch giving a view into some kind of brick basement.

*Flaps*




_Could this be the 2nd raddest junction in the world after Confluence? Your call but it's fancy regardless. Four tunnels four flaps, straight ahead. Two tunnels two flaps, to the left. In the 30 minutes hanging around this junction the water level rose almost a meter._

Even the name rings true, Fleet is the brand of laxative we administered to our New York friends. More importantly in Anglo-Roman the word 'Floet' means 'tidal inlet' or 'a place where vessels float'. Go have a look, you might find some floaters of your own.


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## sheep2405 (Jan 26, 2008)

Dude, very nice.
S


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## Mr Sam (Jan 27, 2008)

drains never really do much for me i know you'll hate me for this but they all look the same (then again ROC posts are and i love them) and then theres the speant toiletries rats and so on.....no thanks 


but an exellent report and documentation coupled with some stunning shots, the wedge reminds me of the tailrace behind Niagra, i guess i really must put my waders to better use than just weeding the pond ...


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## Foxylady (Jan 27, 2008)

Those flaps are awesome. So too is the wedge and the brickwork.
Good report and description of the layout...that is some labyrinthe! 
Good going. 

Cheers


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## smileysal (Jan 28, 2008)

I love looking at pictures of Drains and underground rivers etc. The architecture and the brickwork of the arches and various steps etc are amazing. It makes you wonder how the victorians built them. 

You have some great pictures. Love the pedestrian bit lol, and the flaps, not seen those before.

Cheers,

 Sal


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## King Al (Jan 28, 2008)

Fantastic pics, i Like the one of the "flaps"


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 28, 2008)

Jaw droppingly stunning. Got to be the best drains I've ever seen (yet)!!! 

Cheers Dsankt.

Lb


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## Jondoe_264 (Jan 28, 2008)

Ok, so the _flaps_ are without doubt impressive, and who doesn't smirk inside (or out in my case) to use the word flaps whenever possible? Or is that just me again? So yes, the flappage is amazingly impressive isn't it, but your pic of the parallel split is SO cool! I never really got to marvel at it or get a decent pic from this point when we were first here due to rising water levels! It's SO impressive, those sweeping curves, they remind me of rams horns or some such, like the Dodge Badge






The Fleet will always be a special one, being the one that inspired us to begin to seek out London's sewery underside.  So special . . . . 

JD


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 28, 2008)

I can see the Ram similarities! Out of interest, is it called "Floating Vessels" because that split junction looks a bit like a ship's hull?

Lb


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## dsankt (Jan 28, 2008)

Mr Sam said:


> drains never really do much for me i know you'll hate me for this but they all look the same (then again ROC posts are and i love them) and then theres the speant toiletries rats and so on.....no thanks
> 
> but an exellent report and documentation coupled with some stunning shots, the wedge reminds me of the tailrace behind Niagra, i guess i really must put my waders to better use than just weeding the pond ...



Don't worry, I feel the same about most asylum photos lately. Glad I was able to nab some drains photos to sway your interest. Ah sweet Niagara, I agree on the resemblance.




Lightbuoy said:


> I can see the Ram similarities! Out of interest, is it called "Floating Vessels" because that split junction looks a bit like a ship's hull?
> 
> Lb



yeah the split reminds me of the prow of a ship, but also because in Anglo-Roman the word 'Floet' means 'tidal inlet' or 'a place where vessels float'. There are certainly a lot of floaters in the Fleet Sewer. Just to clarify I only named the post that, the drain is the River Fleet. JD will clarify the drain naming rules 

The Fleet really is special, potentially more special than any of us think. We'll know for sure in the next week or so. Also, the Dodge logo makes me think of one thing - Dodge Durango. Hi JD! Thanks all.


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## Jondoe_264 (Jan 28, 2008)

dsankt said:


> Just to clarify I only named the post that, the drain is the River Fleet. JD will clarify the drain naming rules



Smart arse! 



dsankt said:


> The Fleet really is special, potentially more special than any of us think. We'll know for sure in the next week or so. Also, the Dodge logo makes me think of one thing - Dodge Durango. Hi JD! Thanks all.



DURANGO!! Pimpin' Niagara style, RAR!


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 29, 2008)

Ahh, ta for that Dsankt 

Nice ride too!!


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## Wishmaster (Feb 2, 2008)

awesome pics mate, not yet seen much of drains so cant say I like or dislike them yet.

Sure I have seen pics of this one before, maybe you posted a report elsewhere?


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## Ratters (Feb 2, 2008)

excellent. a great photo's & an even better report


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